


We Can Break All The Rules

by luminfics, Zino



Series: Round 2018 [3]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Football, Dumb Lu Han, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-27 00:11:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15012437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luminfics/pseuds/luminfics, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zino/pseuds/Zino
Summary: Lu Han spirals into madness after just one kiss.





	We Can Break All The Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Number: #17
> 
> Dear prompter, if this isn't close to what you wanted, I'm sorry! It sorta got out of my hands as usual...

 

_17 seconds before The Incident._

 

Lu Han doesn’t see Minseok – he doesn’t need to. Even with his back turned against their own goal and gaze fixed on the opposite goalkeeper, Lu Han _knows_ where Minseok has positioned himself. It’s below him, near the center circle with Baekhyun and Jongdae beside him. They’ve been playing together for a long time already. Long enough for Lu Han and Minseok’s minds to be practically connected. Long enough for Lu Han to know exactly _where_ Minseok is and _what_ he is planning to do with the ball once he has it. Lu Han’s in his favorite position on the football pitch – between the defenders, but still free enough to be able to escape them. Like he is about to do right now. The defender next to him is quickly left behind when Lu Han suddenly changes his pace and escapes from the poor guy with two easy steps. All he needs now is to get rid of the defender on his right side. And Minseok to provide the most important asset of his attacking plan - a perfect pass. Just strong enough that the defenders can’t interfere with it, but not too powerful to prevent it from going straight into the goalkeeper’s hands. Lu Han knows Minseok knows this, and if his striker partner has the ball, there’s no way he’s not going to serve Lu Han that sweet, perfect pass. Judging by the reaction of the crowd gathered at the small stadium, Lu Han is sure Minseok has the ball.

 

He doesn’t need to look back. Lu Han knows the ball will come the moment he starts running away from the second defender, who’s a tad bit lower than the guy already behind Lu Han. He doesn’t worry about going offside – Minseok doesn’t make mistakes like that. _They_ don’t make mistakes like that. It’s already been four seasons, and the last time Lu Han accidentally went offside before Minseok managed to pass the ball to him was a season and a half ago. They are not called the K3 league’s best young striker duo for nothing, and those 18 goals this season Lu Han has already scored aren’t just lucky shots. Minseok’s scored a little less, but it doesn’t matter since he’s normally known for his killer passes.

 

Lu Han can hear one of those deadly passes leaving his teammate’s foot when he takes the first step to escape the last defender guarding him. He doesn’t see the pass, but it doesn’t matter. It barely takes a second and there it is, a blur of white passing Lu Han like he knew it would. He quickens his pace, quickly catching up with the ball. The defender is running after the striker, but he’s already too late. Too far away from Lu Han to try to prevent him from scoring. One soft touch with the ball and it’s under Lu Han’s control. The goalkeeper in front of him sees his defenders being late and decides to run towards the striker by himself instead, trying to minimize the space needed for scoring. Lu Han almost rolls his eyes, because does the goalkeeper really think he can’t get past him?

 

The last second before contact with the goalkeeper, Lu Han touches the ball with the outside of his foot and swiftly gets past the keeper. Then he only has one thing in front of his eyes – an empty net.

 

Scoring a goal always feels good. Scoring a goal from Minseok’s accurate pass feels even better. But the best feeling Lu Han can possibly get is this: when the timer on the clock says it’s the 88th minute, the score is still 0-0 thanks to the combination of the awful rainy weather and their opponent being the team leading the K3 league right now. Minseok finally feeds Lu Han the perfect pass and Lu Han, being the top striker he is, slams the ball into the empty net, making their fans roar in delight.

 

Lu Han yells too. He doesn’t need to see the ball hit the net, he can hear it. By the time the ball collides with the net, he’s already turned away from the goal, arms raised and eyes searching for Minseok — and there he is. That ridiculously light pink hair, wet and plastered against his forehead, and that adorable gummy smile on his face. The older male is running towards Lu Han as well, arms raised and yelling something Lu Han can’t yet make sense of. Their other teammates are running towards him too, but they are nothing but a blur in Lu Han’s vision. His veins are filled with adrenaline, and all his senses are telling him to drop everything else and just run to Minseok as fast as he can and then squeeze him with all of his might. He wants to hug Minseok and tell him that the pass was perfect _,_ Minseok himself is perfect, and there’s no way they are going to lose the game after scoring so late.

 

That’s what Lu Han does. The moment he’s in touching range, he scoops his arms around Minseok and lifts the smaller striker up, pressing his body tightly against his own. Minseok locks his legs around Lu Han so it’s easier for the striker to support the smaller man in the air. Lu Han doesn’t even care that Minseok’s white jersey is so soaked that you can basically see his pink nipples through it. It’s not like Lu Han’s any drier. He probably can’t get wetter than this.

 

“That was an amazing pass!” Lu Han can hear himself yelling. He hears Minseok laugh against his ear, feels his breath tickle there for a second. Minseok’s touch is magical. The whole football field is a wet mess thanks to the afternoon rain that has been ruining their game since the fifth minute. Nobody should be allowed to make a pass that accurate in this weather, but apparently Minseok didn’t get the memo. If they can keep a clean sheet for a couple more minutes, they are going to take the three points and be on top of the league for the first time this season. The thought of it makes Lu Han feel ecstatic.

 

Maybe that’s why, when Lu Han finally lets Minseok down, he doesn’t slap his ass as usual or put an arm around his shoulder. Instead he squeezes his round cheeks with both of his hands, and without a warning, smashes his lips against Minseok’s wet ones. Lu Han doesn’t register the muffled gasp coming from Minseok’s mouth. Nor does he see the awkward looks their teammates exchange with each other, not quite joining in the post goal celebration like they usually do. Lu Han doesn’t even feel the heavy rain hitting against his already soaked skin and jersey. He certainly misses something in his guts turning inside out. All he can think about is how grateful he is for Minseok’s pass accuracy and how they are going to win the league this year. That and how damn soft Minseok’s lips feel against his. So soft that Lu Han thinks the feeling should be illegal.

 

His brain finally registers that he is, indeed, thinking about his teammate’s lips. A second later it kindly reminds Lu Han that he is, indeed, kissing said teammate’s lips. Lu Han’s eyes snap open (when did he close them anyway?), and for a brief moment he can see Minseok’s equally wide eyes in front of him. Lu Han feels his fingers still pressing against the other’s cheeks, and most importantly, he still feels Minseok’s half open but unmoving mouth against his.

 

_Shit._

As if the touch burns, Lu Han quickly jumps backwards. Their lips disconnect with a wet _pop,_ and before Lu Han can take his time to think about his actions, _sorry_ is already out of his mouth. Never has he kissed anyone, let alone another guy, after a successful goal. Minseok looks at him, his lips wet with something other than the pouring rain, and Lu Han is horrified when he realizes it’s probably his saliva. The elder’s gaze is unreadable, and Lu Han doesn’t know if Minseok wants to hit him for being disgusting or congratulate him for the amazing goal. Ready to defend himself, Lu Han opens his mouth. Nothing comes out as his brain is still a mess. It’s surprisingly hard to organize your thoughts after a) scoring a possible winning goal in a very important match and b) accidentally kissing your teammate. Before he gets his thoughts in order, Lu Han’s other teammates recover from the sudden display of extreme skinship. Lu Han and Minseok can only blink when there are suddenly eight yelling bodies beside them. Jongdae slams his hand against Lu Han’s back fiercely enough for air to leave Lu Han’s lungs, making him feeling even more light-headed than before.

 

“Lu Han!” their midfielder roars, making Lu Han’s ears ring. Jongdae is always too loud for his own good. Then there’s a hand on top of his head, probably Junmyeon’s, and Baekhyun is hugging both him and Minseok at the same time. There’s loud sobbing coming from somewhere that sounds a lot like Zitao. Lu Han is slowly starting to realize again that they are leading 1-0 and he just scored the most important goal of the season so far. Despite the heavy bodies clinging to him from all sides, he manages to steal a sneak peek at Minseok’s face. The other is smiling at him widely, and something heavy Lu Han didn’t even know he had inside of him leaves his heart as he smiles back.

 

All is good again.

 

 

_1 day and 22 hours after The Incident._

All is not good.

 

They have their first light practice with the team after the winning game and Lu Han is distracted. It’s awful because he’s never distracted. He loves football and the last thing he wants is to waste precious practice time. Especially now that they are leading the league for the first time since he started playing in this particular team. There are still eight matches to win if they want to keep their position until the end of the season.

 

In short, there is absolutely no time for Lu Han to get distracted now. Especially by such silly things as Minseok’s lips.

 

It’s just… were they always that plump and red? Why is he constantly biting his lower lip? Has anyone else noticed how, when Minseok smiles with his mouth open his mouth takes this cute uneven shape? They’ve know each other for four years already, so how come Lu Han only now registers the natural pouty shape of his teammate’s lips? How did he miss all these details before? So many questions run through Lu Han’s head. Questions that he should not be thinking about in the middle of free kick practice. Minseok is standing close to him as they are forming a wall ready to stop the ball when it comes. Minseok clutches the hem of Lu Han’s training jersey in his left hand, probably to keep the striker in the right place. Not that Lu Han notices this when his vision is strictly limited to the lips next to him. Minseok’s hand isn’t the only thing he misses as Lu Han forgets to concentrate on the ball Kyungsoo is getting ready a few meters away. The defender taking steps away from the ball couldn’t interest Lu Han less right now. The only thing he finds interesting is that cute mouth right beside him. Did he really kiss those lips? Lu Han tries to remember the feeling, but it’s hard when he wasn’t really thinking straight back then (quite literally). It was wet, that much he remembers, but that was probably because of the rain.

 

What else was there?

 

Softness?

 

Yeah, softness. Despite all that constant biting, Minseok’s lips were really soft.

 

How is it even possible?

 

Lu Han makes a mental note to borrow the lip balm his teammate is using. It must be quite amazing if it can make those over-bitten plump lips feel that soft. Nothing like the stuff his mom used to use. Lu Han still remembers it. Tasting like cherry, making him think it was a candy stick. He remembers his mother yelling at him once she found out why she was always running out of lip balm.

 

Lu Han!

 

Yeah, just like that. _Lu Han,_ she had yelled, angry that yet another chapstick of hers had been eaten by his own son.

 

“Lu Han!”

 

Why is his mother still yelling? Lu Han hasn’t digested cherry-flavored chapsticks in years.

 

Lu Han doesn’t have the time to think about another kiss-related detail when the ball forcefully hits him straight in the face. Before passing out, Lu Han mentally applauds Kyungsoo. Despite his tiny frame, his freekicks sure are powerful.

 

Then his vision blackens, and the last thing Lu Han sees is something red and plump hovering over him.

 

When he comes to again, he’s lying on the bench near the sideline. Lu Han feels something cold against his thumping head and hears a soft humming voice he recognizes.

 

“How long was I out?” he croaks, closing his eyes again, because damn his whole head hurts.

 

“It’s only been five minutes”, Yixing informs him, replacing the ice bag with his hand and rubbing Lu Han’s head gently. “You just got a bloody nose from the ball and a slight bump to your head when you hit the ground.”

 

Lu Han groans, “Fantastic.” Part of him does want to keep lying down because he feels pathetic. Is it common to get so distracted by a teammate’s lips that you get knocked out by a football? Lu Han thinks it isn’t. At least not for him. He didn’t even get distracted that one time when Jongin ripped his football shorts trying to reach the ball and half of the team was dying from laughter. He never gets distracted by anything during practice. Until today, that is. Thank god the ball knocking him out happened at practice. Lu Han’s pretty sure he would’ve taken the very next flight back to China if anything close to this happened at the official game. Kissing Minseok had been bad enough, but at least he should be over it by now. He definitely should not be looking at the other’s lips all the damn time. Especially when Minseok was acting all normal and not getting distracted by Lu Han’s lips at all.

 

“Can you continue, or should I take you home? Coach said if you feel funny you can go get checked in case you have a concussion. He doesn’t believe you do, though. Kyungsoo’s kicks are strong but not that strong. And your nose didn’t even break”, Yixing smirks, but keeps rubbing Lu Han’s throbbing head anyway. With another groan, Lu Han slaps their defender’s hand away and sits up, testing his head by turning it slowly from left to right. He doesn’t feel dizzy and to be honest, it’s his nose and pride that hurt more than his head.

 

“Lu Han, you okay?” There’s a new voice coming from behind Yixing. Lu Han’s heart jumps to his throat, preventing him from answering Minseok. Being unable to get the words out, he just nods, hoping to keep a straight face. Before Lu Han can get up and stand, Yixing makes more space for Minseok, who sits next to him with a wet rag in his hands. Lu Han doesn’t have time to protest when Minseok starts wiping his face with the rag, obviously trying to clean the leftover bloodstains. Lu Han couldn’t care less about the reasons, as the only thing he’s currently focused on— are Minseok’s slightly parted lips right in front of him.

 

Lu Han’s gaze wanders from the full lower lip to Minseok’s tiny white teeth. Then to his upper lip that has a habit of disappearing whenever Minseok laughs. Another thing Lu Han should have noticed years ago. Leaving the thinner lip, Lu Han’s gaze drops down to the lower one again. Minseok must really be concentrating on wiping the striker’s bloody face because he’s biting his lower lip again. For a passing moment, Lu Han feels the urge to sink his teeth into it too. The thought scares him, and he quickly blinks it away.

 

What’s wrong with him today?

 

“I can’t believe you just stood there and stopped Kyungsoo’s freekick with your face”, Minseok grins and Lu Han can hear Yixing chuckle as well. This already seems like one of those things his teammates are going to keep reminding him of forever. Like they keep joking about the _one_ time Lu Han had accidentally introduced himself as Minseok to the opposing team’s captain when they were shaking hands just before the match started. In Lu Han’s defense, Minseok had been stretching in a very compromising position back then, and he had just wanted to yell the other’s name out loud to stop him for doing that. For some reason Lu Han had never shared his explanation with his teammates, just insisted it was a pure accident instead.

 

“I was distracted.” Lu Han finally finds his voice, his eyes never quite leaving Minseok’s mouth. He can feel himself gulping when his teammate licks his dry lips as he keeps wiping just above Lu Han’s mouth. Lu Han’s already lost count how many times Minseok’s been there to take care of him after minor and major injuries. It’s natural for them to look out for each other, and Lu Han can’t stand the idea of playing on the field without his partner. From the gentle wiping, Lu Han can tell Minseok feels the same.

 

“I could tell”, Minseok laughs and there it is, the sight of his upper lip nearly disappearing. “You should have seen Junmyeon. Poor captain, he really freaked out when you hit the ground.”

 

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t catch me!” Lu Han accuses the other two. Minseok may take care of him well, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when he and Yixing are being little shits and just laugh at Lu Han’s misery. Physical or mental. Minseok claims it’s a hyung thing. Lu Han says bullshit — the fact that Minseok is a month older than him doesn’t automatically make him his _hyung_. Yixing defends his behavior by playing the best friend card that allows him to laugh at Lu Han’s misfortune, to which Lu Han can’t say anything. He knows he uses the same excuse whenever he snickers at Yixing spacing out at random moments. Minseok and Yixing only chuckle at him, and then Minseok decides Lu Han’s face is clean enough and he throws away the rag, patting Lu Han’s cheek. Lu Han finds himself half leaning into the touch and half trying to resist doing so because his thoughts are still messy and dangerous.

 

“Sorry, I’ll be there for you the next time”, Minseok smiles. “After practice is over, let’s go eat”, he adds. “My treat.”

 

 

_2 days and 23 hours after The Incident._

“My treat” turns out to be Minseok realizing he doesn’t have enough money in his wallet, him _accidentally_ slipping out “Lu _-ge_ what should I do?” and Lu Han instantly promising to treat him today instead. Minseok rewards him with a nice smile that is just a step away from a smug grin, but Lu Han takes it anyway and feels like he’s on top of the world. He concludes he must really like treating people for it to make him feel this way.

 

They choose a table furthest from all the noise and the kids’ section. Hamburgers are probably food young healthy football players should not be eating, but Lu Han likes to make exceptions. If Wayne Rooney can live on an island that’s pretty much famous for its unhealthy food and still be one of the best footballers out there, then surely Lu Han can eat a hamburger or two every now and then. Minseok orders an iced Americano to go with his burger, but Lu Han sticks with a simple cola. As much as Minseok has changed his view towards coffee, Lu Han still can’t quite love it as much as his teammate does. He hasn’t said this to Minseok, though. As far the elder is concerned, Lu Han absolutely _freaking_ loves all types of coffee. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the wide smile Minseok gives him every time he manages to make Lu Han gulp down another type of the black and bitter beverage.

 

Lu Han quietly munches on his cheese burger and watches Minseok drink his coffee through a straw. He has this habit, Lu Han notices, where he sticks his tongue out almost cheekily— before sucking in the straw. _Why does his tongue need to be out?_ Lu Han wonders and tries not to get a piece of melted cheddar stuck in his throat, because his breathing is doing the funny thing again. A thing it’s been doing the past couple of days and Lu Han doesn’t know the reason. He only knows it happens when Minseok’s around. His best bet is that it has something to do with the goal Lu Han scored. Seeing Minseok makes him remember the amazing pass, his equally amazing goal and thus makes Lu Han all excited and giddy again, messing up his breathing at the same time. And honestly, Lu Han has far more important things to think about than the reasons why his breathing’s been irregular around a certain teammate lately.

 

Important things like that white mayo stuck on Minseok’s lips after he takes a big bite of his own burger (it never ceases to amaze Lu Han how a tiny mouth like Minseok’s can be so huge when opened). Minseok licks his lips but misses the spot, making Lu Han twitch slightly on his seat.

 

“What?” Minseok finally breaks the silence. It’s not that they don’t have anything to talk about, but the both of them had been too hungry to speak until now. Their only communication so far had been Minseok nudging Lu Han’s leg with his own several times and Lu Han trying to not to choke on his drink as the touch felt way more sensual than it should have. In the end, he had given Minseok some of his fries, because that was probably what the elder was silently asking. Minseok got weird around food sometimes, and the only explanation he had given to the striker was a quiet mumble about “middle school” and “weight problems”. Lu Han had left it at that. Middle school was the time everyone wanted to desperately forget.

 

“What?” Lu Han answers dumbly, blinking his way out of his thoughts.

 

“You keep staring at me”, Minseok explains. Something cold slushes all way down to Lu Han’s toes. He feels like he’s five again and his mom just caught him eating her last cherry flavored chapstick.

 

“Your lips”, escapes from Lu Han’s mouth before he has time to stop himself. His breath hitches in his throat when he realizes what he’s said. Yes, he keeps thinking about Minseok’s lips for some strange reason, but it doesn’t mean his striker partner needs to know that. Now or ever.

 

“My lips?” There’s amusement mixed with confusion in Minseok’s voice.

 

“Mayo!” Lu Han hastily explains, blurting out the first excuse his eyes catch. “You must be enjoying the mayo. It’s all over your lips.”

 

Minseok licks his lips, missing the spot again. “Really? Did I get it off?”

 

“No”, Lu Han whines. His right hand twitches in anticipation. It wants to do its thing, but Lu Han isn’t sure if it’s wise. He thinks about it for a second but fails to see any other way to deal with the situation. Leaning across the table, he wipes the remainder of the white sauce off Minseok’s lips with his thumb. He doesn’t drag the procedure longer than necessary and definitely doesn’t almost stick his thumb inside Minseok’s mouth. Lu Han can feel the pulse hammering in his chest, and he’s pretty sure if Baekhyun was here he’d accuse Lu Han of blushing (he’s not, it’s just warm here). Minseok’s probably staring at him, but Lu Han doesn’t dare to look at his eyes, fixing his gaze at the spot his thumb is smoothing. Who knew it would be this exciting to wipe mayo off someone’s lips. When Lu Han’s sure there’s no white sticky stuff (wait, is mayo even sticky? Why did he describe it as sticky?) left on Minseok’s face, Lu Han retreats his hand and takes a deep breath.

 

“I got it off”, he explains. If Minseok wasn’t wiping it off, it was clearly Lu Han’s job to do so. There were no other options.

 

Minseok raises his eyebrow. “Thanks? I could have just used the napkin though.”

 

Oh, right. He could have just used the napkin.

 

“It was faster this way”, Lu Han mumbles and busies himself with the fries, trying to suffocate himself with them. This clearly isn’t his brightest day. He’s probably just tired because of the game before and the practice today. Or maybe it’s the effect of getting smacked on his face by a ball earlier. He clearly just needs more rest and then he’ll be able to stop acting like a fool.

 

And most importantly, he’ll be able to stop thinking about Minseok’s lips all the time.

 

Yeah, after a couple more days he’s going to be just fine.

 

 

_6 days and 2 hours after The Incident_

He’s not going to be fine.

 

It’s already been a week, and Lu Han is still getting his knees weak whenever Minseok interrupts his field of vision. Especially when those lips interrupt it.

 

Lu Han thinks he’s gone crazy. He keeps thinking about the last game and the damn kiss. He knows he shouldn’t but he’s unable to stop himself.

 

The worst part is he really wants to do it again. If only to check that he wasn’t hallucinating the whole softness part. Lu Han keeps stealing sneak peeks at those lips when he thinks Minseok or anyone else isn’t looking. He blabbers whatever comes to his mind whenever Minseok talks to him, because his brain is too busy concentrating on that pink mouth to make Lu Han say anything proper. He gets all jumpy whenever Minseok touches him and has to wrestle down the urge to just grab the other by his training jersey and connect their mouths again. Sometimes he manually has to force his gaze away from the plump lips before Minseok notices Lu Han has been staring at the same spot for the past five minutes when talking to the elder. (Minseok has yet to arrive to practice with a “my eyes are up here” shirt, so Lu Han’s still safe.)

 

In other words, Lu Han is acting weird. His teammates always accuse him of acting weird, saying weird things (he doesn’t think saying he wants to take a bite of Minseok’s cheeks because they remind him of steamed buns and thus make him hungry is _that_ weird), and even looking weird when he simply smiles. It’s nothing new to Lu Han and he doesn’t mind it, because who in this team isn’t a bit weird (except Minseok, Lu Han notes. Minseok’s perfect. Well, at least his passes are, but that’s pretty much the same thing). But never has he thought of himself acting weird or having weird thoughts, both of which he’s been guilty of doing lately. To be precise, ever since he accidentally attacked his teammate’s mouth a week ago.

 

Minseok, on the other hand, is the same as ever. He doesn’t stare at Lu Han’s mouth, doesn’t get all red-faced when he’s standing next to Lu Han. He still wrestles Lu Han’s fingers off his ass without a word, like he usually does whenever the striker forgets the concept of personal space. Minseok still agrees to take selcas with Lu Han so the younger guy can fill his Instagram with cute partnership pictures. He still shares his water bottle with Lu Han without his face screaming “indirect kiss” like Lu Han knows his own face does. In fact, Minseok acts like _The Incident_ never even happened. They haven’t talked about it, because why should they? It was just Lu Han expressing his happiness in a rather extreme way, and it’s not like Lu Han’s the first football player ever to kiss his teammate on the mouth. He’s just the first one in their team, and Minseok just happens to be the first guy in general he’s ever kissed. In short, there’s nothing to talk about. Minseok hasn’t mentioned the kiss, Lu Han hasn’t mentioned it, nobody on the team has mentioned it (even though Lu Han swears he can sometimes catch Baekhyun making kissy faces when he thinks Lu Han isn’t watching), so why should they talk about it? Lu Han already apologized right after the kiss, but even without that Minseok didn’t seem to be too bothered about it. He probably thinks nothing of the kiss and was just briefly surprised Lu Han kissed him. That’s all. After all, Lu Han isn’t really the kissy type. Especially towards his teammates. Well, lately he hasn’t been kissing anyone, teammate or not.

 

Maybe that’s the root of this whole problem. The last time Lu Han had kissed someone, excluding _The Incident_ , was when again? He vaguely remembers a party. Remembers getting it on with some random girl, and even though he doesn’t really remember what happened (thanks to him being drunk and it happening ages ago), he’s pretty sure there had been kissing going on.

 

In conclusion, only because he hasn’t been kissed for so long he somehow now clings to that one kiss from a week ago, and it had nothing to do with Minseok’s perfect lips after all.

 

Lu Han sighs in relief. Now he doesn’t have to book a time for a shrink to ask why it is that he can’t get his teammate’s lips out of his mind. Or said teammate in general. Now he won’t have to call his mom to ask how she’d feel if, in theory, she never got grandchildren. Lu Han doesn’t have to do any of that. He’ll just have to kiss someone so he can continue acting normal around Minseok again and not fuck up their season (and remember to kiss someone at least once a month to prevent this from happening ever again).

 

Full of newfound determination, Lu Han grins to himself, ignores Yifan calling him a madman, and congratulates himself for finding a solution for his weird feelings. He’s going to hit the bar tonight, find someone to kiss, and be over this whole situation (or to be more precise, be over Minseok and his lips) in about two seconds.

 

 

_6 days and 6 hours after The Incident_

He’s not going to be over the situation in two seconds.

 

The problem is, Lu Han soon finds out after setting his foot in the bar, that he doesn’t want to kiss any of these girls. As ridiculous as it sounds, he doesn’t want to wash away Minseok’s taste from his lips. It’s crazy because the taste was probably gone about three seconds after the kiss thanks to the pouring rain. There are plump red lips all around him and the girls are pretty as usual, but there is something missing. There’s no urge to go talk to them, no urge to try to get their number, and definitely no urge to taste their lips.

 

Lu Han’s never been in a bar without talking to anyone or without making eye contact with girls clearly interested in his looks. He drinks his beer in complete silence and wonders about his life and how he clearly fucked up something a week ago. It was _just_ a kiss, for god’s sake! He’s fondled Minseok’s naked ass in the showers plenty of times before, so why is a mere kiss messing with his head so much? It wasn’t even planned. It didn’t fulfill some deep fantasies of Lu Han’s (and even those are on the pure side, like winning the K3 league and getting ManU’s scouts to notice him). It happened completely in the spur of the moment, and Lu Han’s pretty sure at that time he wasn’t thinking about anything at all, outside of the winning goal. It’s not like he _wanted_ to kiss Minseok. He’s never wanted to kiss Minseok, he hasn’t even paid attention to his lips before!

 

Taking a sip from his beer, Lu Han wonders why he’s like this now. Sure, the lips were soft, but it’s not like they were _that_ soft now that he thinks about it. He’s probably just misremembering things. The kiss wasn’t even good. Minseok didn’t respond, and Lu Han feels like he was trying to suffocate Minseok with his lips instead of using his best kissing techniques on his teammate. In summary, there was nothing special about the kiss and he’s just making it seem important by constantly thinking about it. Lu Han would probably have forgotten the whole thing already if not for the constant, blatant staring at Minseok’s lips the past week. Why can’t he be like Neville? He had kissed Scholes right on the mouth, and Lu Han’s sure neither of them ever had this kind of mental breakdown over it.

 

He should just stop being a basket case, man up, and move on. So what if he doesn’t want to kiss anyone? He doesn’t need to want it to be able to do it. He’ll just kiss someone really quickly, go home and wake up tomorrow feeling normal again. All he needs is to peck someone on the lips. Hardly a difficult task.

 

It shouldn’t be that hard to stop thinking about Minseok’s lips, either. Especially now that a pretty young lady from the table next to him has finally gathered enough courage to come talk to Lu Han instead of just stealing glances at him. Lu Han should grab this chance, pucker up his lips like Baekhyun does whenever he wants to take “cute” selcas, steal a kiss from the girl, go home victorious and face Minseok the next day like he used to.

 

“Hi”, the pretty lady says, and Lu Han shamelessly lowers his gaze to her lips. They are pink and pretty and he feels absolutely zero desire to kiss them.

 

“Hi, I’m crazy”, he laughs instead, finishing his beer in one last big gulp and leaving the bar and a very confused looking woman behind him.

 

He’s going to need professional help.

 

 

_9 days after The Incident_

His professional help turns out to be Yixing.

 

These past two Minseok-free days, Lu Han has been thinking (whether that is a good thing or not depends on who you’re asking). He doesn’t think he’s crazy. The whole situation is like the case with the chocolate ramen two years ago. After the first bite, Lu Han had thought he had died and gone to heaven. The taste had been absolutely phenomenal. After the second bite, Lu Han had realized that maybe he really had died and descended straight to hell. He hadn’t mixed cocoa powder with his ramen ever again after that.

 

He thinks this is the same. He’s never kissed guys before, so it’s only natural for Lu Han to think it was the greatest feeling ever after only doing it once. It had nothing to do with Minseok, it was just a chocolate ramen thing all along. He just needs to do it again and he’ll be free. Free from thinking he prefers his kissing partner smelling like grass and sweat instead of expensive perfumes.

 

This is where Yixing enters the picture.

 

Lu Han and Minseok may be the best striker duo South Korea has seen (according to Lu Han), but that doesn’t mean Minseok is the one to whom Lu Han spills all his crazy ideas. He can’t just casually ask Minseok to kiss him again and to cure him of thinking about his lips too much. Lu Han’s already avoided one land mine when Minseok didn’t seem to be bothered about the kiss, and Lu Han really doesn’t want to test his luck any further. Sure, Lu Han is comfortable enough around Minseok to casually squeeze his ass at least once every practice. Comfortable enough to tell him he’s the cutest guy Lu Han’s ever met and sometimes even ask Minseok to move in with him, because Lu Han’s apartment feels too empty when he comes home alone after practice. But those are normal things to do to your teammate, nothing unusual about them. As normal as Lu Han sometimes calling Minseok his soulmate and thinking about the color of his tie at their very hypothetical fantasy wedding. However, none of those things are kissing. Lu Han can do many things to Minseok, but asking him to kiss him again is not one of them. That goes beyond acceptable teammate behavior. The last thing he wants is Minseok becoming awkward around him and their striker partnership suffering in the process.

 

Luckily, there’s always Yixing. His teammate _and_ Lu Han’s best friend. Frankly, sometimes the only person who seems to be able to put up with Lu Han’s “crazy shit” (according to Yifan). There are things he can do to Yixing, even as a teammate, and not fear messing up the team’s dynamics. Lu Han can count on Yixing to just dumbly stare at him after he’s been asked if Lu Han can kiss him.

 

“Why?” Yixing asks instead of just offering his lips. Lu Han stares at his friend in disbelief. Yixing wasn’t supposed to ask questions. He doesn’t work like that. Their whole relationship doesn’t work like that! Yixing’s supposed to accept whatever crazy ideas Lu Han throws at him, _no_ questions asked. Especially when Lu Han has no answers he can share. Yixing may be his best friend, but that doesn’t mean Lu Han’s ready to tell him he’s been kind of thinking about Minseok’s lips for the past nine days (not that he’s counting).

 

“No reason”, Lu Han lies, and it stings his heart. Yixing’s sweet and innocent and doesn’t deserve to be lied to, but he has no other options. Because what can he say? _I need to stop wanting to kiss Minseok, so you need to kiss me,_ doesn’t sound like a very good excuse. It will probably lead to another set of questions. Questions that Lu Han’s been asking himself lately like _why do you want to kiss Minseok?_ (Because his lips look tasty.) Or _why do you want to stop it?_ (It’s affecting my playing.) Or the worst: _are you a homo, Lu Han?_ (No comment.)

Yixing eyes him suspiciously. “I don’t want to kiss you.”

 

“Come on, you kiss people all the time!” Lu Han tries. It’s true. Yixing likes kissing, which is one of the reasons Lu Han chose him as the candidate for sharing his second and hopefully last kiss with another man.

 

“On the cheeks. Didn’t sound like you want to kiss my cheek”, Yixing explains and puts the controller down onto the floor. They had been playing the newest Fifa in Lu Han’s place when the striker had decided to casually drop the question.

 

“Cheeks, lips… what’s the difference, really?” Lu Han smiles sweetly, hoping to convince his friend.

 

“The difference is that I don’t kiss guys on the lips”, Yixing tells him straight. Lu Han can only wish he was as straight and able to stop thinking about kissing Minseok.

 

“What if it was a favor for a friend?” Lu Han looks at Yixing from under his long eyelashes. He wishes his pretty face wouldn’t fuck things up every time he tries to smile innocently. It usually just makes him look like a guy you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alleyway. He can’t stop trying, though.

 

“Why would you need a favor like that?” Yixing still hasn’t said yes, but Lu Han can feel him starting to give up like he usually does when it comes to Lu Han and his wild ideas. He appreciates Yixing for that, and in return, he’s going to try little bit of honesty.

 

“I want to see if I like it”, Lu Han answers him. It’s almost the truth. He just needs himself to _not_ to like it. Then everything will be fine again. Maybe after a couple of years, when he’s sitting in a bar with Minseok, he’ll tell him all about that one time he was infatuated with his lips and they’ll have a good laugh together. But that can only happen after his best friend promises to kiss him. Yixing looks at him for a long time, before understanding finally settles on his face.

 

“Is this about Kyungsoo?”

 

“Kyungsoo?” Lu Han blinks in confusion. Then he remembers. “No! It’s not… for fuck’s sake, Yixing. I told you he was cute once. _Once_! When are you going to let it go!?”

 

Yixing just stares at him, eyebrows scrunched together. Lu Han rolls his eyes. Maybe it’s a running joke Yixing thinks is funny, or maybe Lu Han just doesn’t understand it. So yeah, maybe he had told Yixing— a long time ago— that he thought Kyungsoo was cute. It was just an offhand comment, it didn’t mean anything, but somehow Yixing had never quite let it go. Lu Han doesn’t even want to think about what would happen if he were to voice his current thoughts about Minseok. He’s pretty sure Yixing would bring it up when Lu Han and Minseok are both 90 years old and living in the same retirement house (Lu Han hasn’t thought about growing old with Minseok _at all_ ).

 

“Okay, not about Kyungsoo.” Yixing seems to convince himself. He looks at Lu Han again, looks at his lips, and it makes Lu Han automatically lick them before he can stop himself. Then the younger man sighs deeply, turning completely to face Lu Han on the sofa they are currently sitting on. “Fine, you can kiss me. But just once. And _no_ tongue or other tricks or I’ll kick you.”

 

Lu Han practically beams. “Thanks!” Then he wastes no more time, skipping any and all kissing foreplay like caressing Yixing’s cheeks or looking deeply into his eyes because that would be just weird, even if it’s between longtime best friends. Or especially because of that. The striker barely even closes his eyes when he leans in to capture Yixing’s lips with his own.

 

It’s not pleasant.

 

Well, it’s not completely unpleasant either. It feels exactly like you’d imagine kissing your very heterosexual best friend would feel. Awkward and not the kind of experience Lu Han ever wants to share again. Yixing is even kissing him back unlike Minseok, but all Lu Han can think about is how he wants to end the kiss. So he does.

 

The moment they are separated, they both wipe their mouths with their sleeves.

 

“Never again?” Yixing asks once he’s sure there’s no taste of Lu Han left in his mouth anymore.

 

“Never again.” Lu Han easily agrees, closing his eyes and leaning back on the couch. Yixing picks up his controller, going through menus and starting another game, pretending that he didn’t just get kissed by Lu Han. The experiment went exactly like the chocolate ramen one. He never wants to do it again. Except Lu Han’s pretty sure that wasn’t because he was kissing another man, it was only because the man wasn’t Minseok. Unlike the disaster ramen he never wanted to have another taste of ever again, Lu Han still very much wants to kiss Minseok.

 

“Is there such a thing as being attracted to someone’s lips?” Lu Han asks, more of himself than Yixing while he chooses a team for their next round of virtual football. He barely hears Yixing’s answer, being too deep in thought (and he certainly misses Yixing’s eyes widening in shock when Lu Han accidentally chooses Liverpool over ManU in the team selection screen), so Yixing has to repeat it for the second time when he makes sure Lu Han is actually listening.

 

“I don’t know”, Yixing muses. “But I guess it’s possible. Remember how half of the team was attracted to Kyungsoo’s head when he shaved it last season?”

 

The answer is like a shot of adrenaline for Lu Han’s body. “You’re right!” He yells, throwing the controller out of his hands, not caring if it hits the floor and breaks. “They kept kissing it all the time, didn’t they? Especially Jongin and Baekhyun.”

 

Yixing just nods, unsure about what suddenly made his friend so excited. He quietly picks up the controller Lu Han dropped and gives it a comforting pat because he’s Yixing.

 

“But”, Lu Han continues, his hands finding their way to Yixing’s shoulders. “It didn’t mean they _liked_ Kyungsoo or anything. They just… liked his head? Liked to kiss his head!”

 

Under an intense stare, Yixing manages to get out a weak “yeah”. He had kissed Kyungsoo’s head once too. Usually, Yixing prefers cheeks, but the head was too round and irresistible to pass by. He understood very well why it was difficult for their midfielders to keep their lips off their defender’s head.

 

Lu Han squeezes Yixing’s shoulders harder, but not hard enough to bruise. “So, it’s normal to want to kiss certain body parts of your teammate _without_ having romantic feelings. Right?”

 

Yixing isn’t really following the conversation anymore, but that’s nothing new with Lu Han. It’s just easier to agree with him than to start questioning what the hell Lu Han means this time. “Right”, Yixing answers, and Lu Han’s face looks like someone who just hit the lotto. With a side of creepy because that’s just how his friend’s smiling face works.

 

“I could kiss you”, Lu Han beams.

 

“Please don’t”, Yixing retorts back, moving his head to the side just to be cautious. If Lu Han really is going to kiss him, at least this time he’ll only have access to Yixing’s left cheek and nowhere near his lips.

 

“You’re right, I won’t. I’m not attracted to your lips, am I?” Lu Han laughs like a maniac, making Yixing wonder how this is the same guy who’s super serious on the pitch, scoring the most magnificent and impossible goals. Happily floating in his little bubble, Lu Han doesn’t see the suspicious looks his friend sends him. Nor does he hear the wind blowing outside his apartment, sounding a lot like a deep sigh. The whole weird obsession with Minseok’s lips solved, Lu Han’s ready to grab the bull by the horns and see how many times he can get away with kissing those lips before Minseok smacks him on the head, much like Kyungsoo had done to their overeager midfielders last year.

 

_24 days after The Incident._

It turns out taking a bull by the horns is ten times easier than kissing Minseok again.

 

It’s been two games, _two games_ , and somehow neither Lu Han nor Minseok have scored. The problem doesn’t lie in their teamwork. Lu Han’s enough of a professional footballer not to space out during official games and think about kissing his teammate’s lips when the game is on. Not too much, anyway. Despite Lu Han knowing he probably looks like Zitao in a jewelry store when he’s hungrily staring at Minseok’s lips at practice, the elder has yet to say anything. There’s no strain between them, no shift in their dynamic. Neither of them plays any poorer than before. Especially not Lu Han, now that he’s hungrier for goals more than ever. Their gameplay is as good as always, and the team certainly isn’t lacking goals. Those goals just aren’t scored by their two top strikers. Kyungsoo _never_ scores, but somehow in the last game he scored _two_ goals from the corners right in front of Lu Han’s eyes. And then there was this perfect pass from Minseok heading towards Lu Han, but right before he could get his foot to it and score a goal, Yixing, _Yixing_ of all people, was there between the ball and Lu Han, scoring from the chance instead.

 

Lu Han was happy for his friend, since Yixing, being the defender, hardly ever scores. If only it didn’t mean Lu Han having zero excuses to throw himself against Minseok and show him just _how_ happy he was after scoring from his pass. Lu Han may be a manly man, but that doesn’t mean he can just assault his partner’s lips whenever he feels like it. Baekhyun may have kissed Kyungsoo’s head out of the blue, much to the defender’s annoyance, but Lu Han certainly can’t just walk to Minseok and slam their lips together, no matter how much he wants to. Kissing someone’s shaved head is different from giving a kiss straight on the lips. Unfortunately. Lu Han needs a valid excuse for kissing Minseok – like him assisting Minseok’s goal or vice versa. Which isn’t happening right now, making Lu Han frustrated as hell.

 

“You’re too tense, relax a bit”, Minseok advises him, and the next thing Lu Han feels are hands on his shoulders as the elder begins to carefully massage them. Lu Han doesn’t know if it’s because his body temperature is low, but Minseok’s hands feel like they are on fire. Soft hands press lightly on the sore spots of his shoulders with moves so familiar, Lu Han can only wonder how Minseok learned to know his body so well. Before the striker can stop himself, his breath hitches in his throat, and it’s a miracle Minseok doesn’t catch the panicked small sound Lu Han makes. Maybe he’s attracted to Minseok’s small hands as well if they are making him feel this lightheaded.

 

“I’m fine.” Lu Han tries to shoo off his teammate before he notices Lu Han’s heart beating like it’s still in the middle of a match. He can smell the shampoo Minseok uses, can see his hands on his shoulders in the corners of his vision. He wants to lean back against Minseok, but doesn’t understand why. His head shouldn’t feel this messy when he’s not directly staring at those dangerous lips.

 

“No, you’re not. Your shoulders are too stiff”, Minseok laughs behind him. “We won the game, it’s okay to relax.”

 

_How can I possibly relax when your hands are all over me?_ Lu Han catches himself thinking. He never used to have a problem with Minseok massaging his shoulders, but right now it feels like he’s in some kind of pornographic movie starring him and his striker partner. Lu Han mentally mourns the missed chance of going to the showers the very moment he took off his shirt. He had kept sitting on the bench instead, thinking about all the lost chances to kiss Minseok in the game. He still has his shorts on, but with the way Minseok moves his hands on Lu Han’s back, he might as well be naked – he feels that exposed. He vaguely notices Baekhyun staring from the opposite bench, but Lu Han doesn’t dare to look directly at the younger man. He doesn’t want to know what kind of face the midfielder is making, nor does Lu Han want to know what kind of expression he is making himself. His face is probably betraying all his emotions like it usually does. Attempting to stop Baekhyun from reading too much into anything, Lu Han grabs the nearest bottle and pretends to drink from it, cleverly hiding his face at the same time.

 

“There, feeling better now?” Minseok finally removes his hands from Lu Han’s now hot body. Of course, he does it as slowly as possible, dragging his fingers against Lu Han’s back before lifting them, making the striker shiver. Never has Minseok’s touch felt this torturous to the younger man. Lu Han wants nothing more than to just skip the shower and run home fast.

 

“Yes”, he manages to croak out. His whole face must be red, but Minseok doesn’t comment on it. He probably thinks it’s because Lu Han just ran the last 90 minutes. He does, however, comment on something else.

 

“You should hurry up and take a shower. You smell.”

 

“Yes, yes”, Lu Han blindly agrees, and after a couple of minutes he finds himself standing under a very cold stream of water. Now he understands Jongin’s slump last season. It’s not easy being in the same team when you’re attracted to a certain body part of your teammate. Lu Han doesn’t remember Jongin spending long time in the cold showers, but then again, he did get to kiss Kyungsoo’s head every week. It wasn’t anything like Lu Han’s situation. There’s nothing more to do than to hope he or Minseok scores. Preferably soon, before Lu Han completely loses it and notices he’s attracted to everything about Minseok.  Because that would probably mean crossing some lines Lu Han’s trying very hard to not even think about.

 

 

_36 days after The Incident._

It’s also very hard to not to think about Minseok when he’s waiting for Lu Han outside the stadium after their practice is done, car keys in hand, asking Lu Han to come drink coffee with him. He’s wearing an oversized orange hoodie and his football shorts, and Lu Han briefly thinks this is the single most adorable sight he’s ever seen. Then he remembers the picture Jongdae had shown him where Minseok was sleeping in fluffy pajamas surrounded by soft toy kittens. Lu Han still has that picture as his desktop background.

 

He agrees right away, because in what reality would he say no to a coffee date ( _platonic_ date) with the elder?

 

The _platonic_ date goes well – Lu Han doesn’t even stare at Minseok’s lips all the time. They talk about upcoming games and make vague plans of going to see TVXQ together this summer. Minseok offers him his other earbud to make Lu Han listen to the one song in which he thinks Changmin’s voice sounds absolutely angelic. Lu Han doesn’t even feel jealous (he never gets jealous when Minseok’s expression turns all dreamy when he’s talking about his favorite idol. _Never_.), not when Minseok’s face is close and he’s silently mouthing the lyrics of the song while directly staring at Lu Han. The gaze is so intense that Lu Han can’t even pay attention to the song or the lyrics Changmin’s singing. It’s probably just something about love like most of their songs, anyway. He stares back at Minseok and swallows instead. How come he never noticed how pretty monolid eyes can be?

 

He feels his stomach turn and hopes it’s just the coffee disagreeing with something.

 

 

_40 days after The Incident._

It’s not coffee.

 

Lu Han hasn’t drunk a drop of coffee in two days when his stomach feels weird again. Except this time, it’s not only his stomach. The feeling spreads slowly all over his body, making Lu Han’s toes curl in his football cleats. Minseok is laughing at Chanyeol being on his knees and rapidly apologizing to Kyungsoo for dropping his water bottle and spilling the contents all over the defender’s legs. Lu Han misses the whole scene of Kyungsoo slapping Chanyeol’s face with the taller man’s huge goalkeeper gloves and Chanyeol whimpering in faked pain on the ground, as the striker can only concentrate on the sound of Minseok’s bubbling laugh.

 

He feels something tighten in his chest.

 

“Something to write home about”, Minseok wipes tears from his eyes. “Or in a diary.”

 

“I don’t keep a diary”, Lu Han mumbles, fisting his hands so that he won’t wipe a stray tear on Minseok’s cheek by accident.

 

 

_43 days and 8 hours after The Incident_

_Dear diary._

_Ah, scratch that. Dear random notebook I found lying around._

_It’s been 5 matches. 5 FUCKING MATCHES without Minseok scoring or me scoring from his pass._

_I’m slowly dying._

_Should I write my will here? Yixing, you can have my games and_ _PlayStation_ _and that one potted plant you keep singing to when you think I’m already asleep._

_Minseok, you can have my lips. Hah, I wish. I WISH YOU WOULD HAVE THEM!!! I RLY DO._

_HAHAHAHAH do you see what you’ve done Baozi?! You’ve driven me into insanity! I’m writing a diary! Me! A DIARY!_

_Wow okay I need to kiss him asap._

 

 

_45 days and 4 hours after The Incident_

“What’s this notebook doing under the table? Lu Han, you really should take better care of your stuff.”

 

“Yixing, no!”

 

 

_45 days and 5 hours after The Incident_

_Dear diary._

_I managed to wrestle you out of Yixing’s hands before he took a look._

_Things can’t go on like this. Tomorrow I’m taking action. I have a plan._

 

_46 days and 2 hours after The Incident_

Lu Han’s plan is as simple as he is — more practice.

 

It’s _not_ a trap to lure Minseok in. Because their game is lacking the usual “you pass the ball and I score” thing they established all those seasons ago, it’s obvious they should just practice more together to get into the right groove again. Being alone with Minseok is only a bonus and Lu Han most certainly doesn’t think about that bonus a lot. He didn’t think about it last night when he nervously texted Minseok whether he wanted to practice with Lu Han after they were both done with classes. He certainly didn’t think about it this morning when he styled his brown hair, even though he never styles his hair if he knows he’ll be playing football afterwards. He only thought about it briefly when he spotted the pink-haired man waiting for him on the pitch, waving his hand adorably and making Lu Han swallow a weird lump in his throat. He’s been swallowing nothing a lot lately.

 

“It’s been a while”, Minseok starts while kicking the ball to Lu Han. “Since we’ve practiced alone. Just the two of us.” He has a weird look on his face that Lu Han can’t decipher.

 

“It has”, the striker agrees. They used to do this all the time. Practice outside of the official training times, just the two of them. Lu Han may be a football maniac, but Minseok isn’t too far behind him. It came naturally for them to practice a little more than the others. There was (maybe still is) some kind of friendly rivalry between them, since they were both strikers and the coach liked to play them both in the starting eleven. Nowadays Minseok plays a little below Lu Han, leaving the Chinese man the team’s only pure forward. It’s because of those sweet passes, Lu Han knows. Minseok’s passing accuracy would go to waste, especially with those long balls that go behind the defending line, if he only played pure forward. And the reason why the coach doesn’t play him in the middle field probably has something to do with the fact that, along with the killer passes, Minseok also comes with clinical finishing touches. Lu Han’s probably been in love with the elder’s football skills since the day they met at practice all those seasons ago.

 

“Are you stressing about our season that much?” Minseok asks when they are playing one on one, Lu Han being the defender this time.

 

“Huh?” Is the intelligent answer Lu Han manages, because Minseok just flashed him one of his trademark gummy smiles. Nobody can expect Lu Han’s brain to work after that kind of cute assault. He’s weak to Minseok’s gummy smiles. And weak for his lips. Nowadays for his eyes and hands as well. Probably for his ass too (he definitely hadn’t been staring at it the whole time yesterday when Minseok had been stretching with his ass sticking up right in front of Lu Han’s face). He’s weak to Minseok’s soft touches on the ball and for his skills on the pitch. Probably weak for Minseok in general, but that’s something Lu Han won’t admit to anyone in case it hurts his carefully crafted manly image.

 

“Since you want to practice with me. I know we’re on the top spot now, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. If anything, I think the team is really motivated. Kyungsoo’s never scored three goals in one season”, Minseok explains, trying to push Lu Han to the side and get past him. Lu Han doesn’t give up so easily and pushes back, trying to get the ball to himself without accidentally tripping Minseok to the ground. Despite his tiny frame, Minseok’s surprisingly strong, probably the strongest in their team. Lu Han has powerful thighs, but Minseok has a better built upper body that allows him to keep defenders in check.

 

“I’m not stressing out. It’s just…” Lu Han begins. _It’s just that I need an excuse to kiss you._ “I’m more hyped up so I have a lot of energy to spare. Figured you had too.”

 

“Well, you’re right. I do”, Minseok smirks and finally quickens his pace, easily getting past the frustrated Lu Han. He softly kicks the ball into the net. “Thank god you’re a striker. That was some awful defending.”

 

Lu Han throws grass at him. “Shut up, Baozi.”

 

He’s not really mad at Minseok, though. Not when he drops beside Lu Han, resting on the slightly wet grass with the striker. Lu Han can’t stop himself from turning his head to face Minseok as the elder does the same.

 

“I’ll shut up the second you drop that stupid nickname.” Minseok makes an angry face at him. He looks as threatening as a newborn kitten. Especially when he smiles soon afterwards.

 

“Never. You’ll be Baozi forever”, Lu Han mutters, fighting the urge to touch Minseok’s cheek. His teammate makes a face at Lu Han but doesn’t say anything, just keeps watching the striker. There’s barely any space between them, and it’s making Lu Han anxious for some reason. When his gaze drops to Minseok’s lips, he itches to kiss them. Turning his head to face the sky, Lu Han sighs and switches the topic to something safe. “We’ll win the league this season, right?”

 

“Right”, Minseok easily agrees with him, finally turning his head away from Lu Han and ruffling the younger’s no longer styled brown hair. Lu Han hums quietly at the familiar touch. He’s missed practicing alone with Minseok.

 

 

_46 days and 3 hours after The Incident_

What he hasn’t missed is being alone in the dressing room with Minseok.

 

Practicing alone was fine, but somehow Lu Han had forgotten that also meant taking showers alone. Just the two of them in the dressing room. _Alone_. Usually there’s a lot of noise, as the team is big and somehow filled with the noisiest people on Earth. It doesn’t give Lu Han time to concentrate on Minseok discarding his clothes, because there’s always Yixing saying something into his ear in Chinese or Zitao being the drama queen he is and complaining about some non-existent injury he picked up at the game. Or at least there is Junmyeon making a scene when someone has touched his bag again, or Sehun being the little shit he is, accusing Lu Han. There’s simply no time to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show of Minseok getting out of his clothes. Not that Lu Han would enjoy said show. He’s simply stating that _if_ there was such a show, he wouldn’t have the time to follow it.

 

Time is something he has now. Minseok has his back turned on him, but it doesn’t really matter whether Lu Han sees his abs or not, because the back muscles are just as impressive. There’s no one running around and blocking Lu Han’s view for once, so he’s practically forced to look. Whether he wants to or not. Minseok’s kind of incredible, Lu Han thinks. His face looks round and cute and makes Lu Han want to adopt a hamster or two for himself. But then he takes off his clothes and BAM! Muscles! Abs! Sweaty pale skin everywhere and a faint happy trail disappearing into his shorts (not that Lu Han has looked). That’s the very definition of _not_ hamster.

 

Lu Han couldn’t stop staring even if he wanted to (which he isn’t sure he does). His gaze is on the other’s glistening back (it’s amazing how much Minseok sweats), and he feels like it’s not moving from there any time soon. There’s a familiar lump forming in Lu Han’s throat, and he’s pretty sure he stopped breathing three minutes ago. Pretty much the same moment Minseok decided it was time to get rid of his sweaty shirt. Lu Han’s brain is awfully close to figuring something out, but to protect himself, the striker desperately blocks out all the thoughts his head is constructing, concentrating only on the bare back in front of him. It’s completely normal to admire a good build, he tells himself. Minseok is texting someone, probably the reason why he stopped in the middle of undressing. He still has his socks and shorts on while Lu Han is still fully dressed. He was supposed to undress for the showers as well, but something came up. Something more important than getting out of his own clothes. Something like admiring Minseok’s back muscles and briefly thinking of hitting the gym when he has free time, because Lu Han wants to look like that too. Maybe getting more muscle on his upper body would stop the constant pretty boy comments Lu Han greatly dislikes.

 

Barely registering the moment Minseok puts down his phone, Lu Han has maybe a second to switch his gaze to his shoes and act like he was taking them off when Minseok turns around.

 

“You still have your cleats on? Come on, I’m about to hit the showers already. I’m not waiting for you once I’m done”, Minseok reminds him and casually takes off his shorts and boxers like it’s not a big deal. And it’s not. It shouldn’t be. Lu Han’s seen Minseok’s dick countless times already. He’s not even looking this time, as his gaze is still firmly fixed on his shoes, slightly trembling hands trying to unknot the ties on them. But he sees the boxers hitting the floor – which means, if he were to lift his gaze up now, the dick would there for the whole world to see. Except there’s no whole world in the dressing room now. Just the two of them. Which is why Lu Han doesn’t dare to lift his head up.

 

“Sorry, gimme just a sec”, he mumbles, not daring to fully open his mouth in case all the saliva gathered in it escapes. He’s been so occupied with thoughts of Minseok’s lips that he’s barely acknowledged his other body parts. Like his dick. Lu Han tries not to think about it as that borders on things he considers bad teammate behavior. He really does try, but now that Minseok’s so blatantly reminded him of its existence, Lu Han’s mind wanders to the forbidden topic right away. There’s a vague image in his head. Yes, he likes to slap Minseok’s ass in the showers, but he’s never really paid attention to his naked front before. Never had an urge to really look at it. It’s different now. Now he _wants_ to remember. Wants to remember the shape of it, as well as the shade and the size. Definitely bad teammate behavior. Definitely bad behavior in general. He’s managed to justify his desire to kiss his teammate to himself for now, but Lu Han doesn’t think even he could somehow justify _these_ thoughts.

 

He decides to run away once more as he finally kicks the shoes off his feet and thinks about something else entirely. Something soft. Yixing. Yixing in a bed filled with white teddy bears. Soft and harmless. His dick needs to concentrate on innocent things and to lay low. He’s about to take a shower with Minseok without anyone else being there, and the last thing Lu Han needs is to be reminded that he is a normal healthy young man with an equally healthy dick.

 

“Alright, come quickly then.” Minseok finally puts on a towel around himself, allowing Lu Han to look up. “Also, let me borrow your soap once you’re in the showers. I forgot mine.”

 

“Sure.” Lu Han fakes a smile. Why did he think private practice was a good idea again? There’s no way he can just casually walk to Minseok when he’s naked under a stream of water and hand him the soap.

“Wait”, Lu Han blurts out before Minseok disappears into the shower rooms. “Just take the soap now. You’re going to use it first anyway.” He searches his bag, finding the bottle of shower gel and handing it to Minseok, who gratefully takes it with a sweet ‘ _Thanks’._ Lu Han doesn’t dare to answer anything back.

 

Once he’s sure Minseok’s in the showers, Lu Han hastily undresses himself. He checks that all his body parts are still behaving themselves, thinks of Yixing and teddy bears just to be cautious, and heads for the showers too. He takes the one furthest away from Minseok, but that still doesn’t stop him from hearing the noises the other makes. They are nothing lewd and it’s not like Minseok is moaning or jerking off in the shower (uh oh, dangerous thoughts! Yixing! Teddy bears! Yifan in a skirt!). They are just noises that come from Minseok running his (probably) soapy hands over his body, scrubbing his back and rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. Just completely normal showering noises, but still sounds Lu Han has missed all these years because there’s always too much noise in the showers when half of the team is there at the same time. Now that he can actually hear what the other is doing, without even seeing it (he doesn’t dare to take a look, not in a million years), it feels…

 

_Really fucking erotic,_ Lu Han thinks, his cheeks reddening rapidly. His dick thinks so too — he can feel it twitch.

 

_Oh god, not now boner,_ Lu Han mentally curses. He isn’t even looking. How the hell can he have a boner over normal shower noises?! He’s manlier than this. He’s manly enough to will his dick down. To make it behave like a normal heterosexual dick that doesn’t think showering teammates five showers away from his are hot. Angrily shampooing his hair and staring at his rebellious dick, Lu Han fails to notice Minseok has stopped showering.

 

“Here’s your soap”, says a sweet voice next to Lu Han, and only a miracle prevents him from jumping and accidentally slipping on the wet tiles. However, it doesn’t stop Lu Han from turning around, and of course it doesn’t stop his gaze from going south for a mere millisecond. He lifts his gaze immediately, but the image of Minseok’s cock is already burned deep in his mind and no amount of Yixings or Yifans in the ugliest skirts imaginable can save him now.

 

“T-Thanks”, Lu Han manages to say, hoping not to stutter too much and save the last of his dignity. Minseok just shrugs his shoulders. “No problem. Don’t take too long, or I really will leave without you.” Then he turns around, and there’s that bare ass Lu Han has always liked to touch. Since he’s already doomed anyway, Lu Han doesn’t even feel ashamed as he keeps staring at it until the moment Minseok wraps a fresh towel around himself. Lu Han bites his lip hard and hopes the pink-haired man doesn’t look back, because he has no excuses for what his dick is doing right now.

 

Lu Han remembers when he thought it was troubling to think about Minseok’s lips all the time.

 

Good times. Simpler times. Lu Han sure misses those now.

 

 

_48 days after The Incident_

He doesn’t miss the way Yixing suspiciously looks at him when Lu Han has yet to do anything other than flutter his eyelashes at his friend.

 

“Yixing.”

 

“I’m not kissing you again, if that’s what you’re going to ask.”

 

Lu Han looks dumbfounded. “Wha…. No! I don’t want to kiss you again either!”

 

It’s after midnight, and Lu Han and Yixing may or may not have played Fifa for four hours straight instead of working on their essays like good students should have. But it’s Thursday (technically Friday already) which is basically mini-Friday, which means they don’t have to worry about school stuff right now. In theory.

 

Speaking of theory.

 

“So, Yixing”, Lu Han starts again. They are lying on his bed. Together because Lu Han’s couch doesn’t sit well with Yixing’s waist problems. There aren’t more than five centimeters between their bodies, but the situation is still completely heterosexual.

 

Speaking of theory and heterosexuality.

 

 “In theory, if you think of a guy…”

 

“Okay, who should I think of? Junmyeon? I’m thinking of the captain now. What’s next?” Yixing enthusiastically replies now that it’s clear he won’t have to swap saliva with his best friend again. He thinks this is some kind of a game, and Lu Han should have known better than to use incomplete sentences around his best friend.

 

“You aren’t supposed to think of anyone!” Lu Han gently smacks Yixing on his head. His friend doesn’t need new injuries; the problem with his waist is more than enough. Yixing says it’s nothing, but Lu Han hasn’t missed the tiny winces of pain ever so often. Still, he doesn’t want to press it. For now, he keeps his eye on Yixing to see if he can deal with acknowledging his injury on his own or not.

 

“Ow”, Yixing whines and rubs his head. It’s only for show and Lu Han rolls his eyes, communicating a silent _I didn’t even hit you that hard_ to the defender.

 

“Let’s try this again. In theory, can you still consider yourself heterosexual if you think of a guy and get a… a….” Lu Han tries to get the last word out, but it won’t leave his mouth. It sticks to the roof of his mouth like a dry tongue in the summer heat. The last couple of days have not been easy for him. He’s found new sides of him he wishes he’d never discovered in the first place.

 

“A heart attack?” Yixing tries to be helpful. This is why Lu Han always has to do everything by himself in the end.

 

“Not a heart attack! Why would thinking of anyone give you a heart attack? I’m talking about a boner!” The word flies easily out of his mouth before he has time to think about it. Instantly, Lu Han feels regret. Why did he think bringing up this topic to Yixing was a good idea again? Maybe he’s secretly hoping Yixing will say it’s completely normal to get boners around your striker partner showering. Maybe Yixing also thinks of his teammates under heavy blankets in the darkness where no one can see him, trying to fight the urge to touch himself through his pajama bottoms. Maybe Lu Han can still _somehow_ pretend he can be straight _and_ think of Minseok daily.

 

Yixing turns his head towards Lu Han, and even in the darkening room he can see the younger man’s expression. Yeah, he really didn’t think so either.

 

“I’m fucked. I’m truly fucked”, Lu Han groans and tucks his head under the blankets. He’s heading straight to homoville, whether he’s bought tickets or not. He never should have practiced alone with Minseok in the first place. Never should have kissed him. At this point, he almost wishes he had just stayed in China. Fuck South-Korea. Fuck the K3 league. Fuck football, and finally, fuck Minseok and his great ass and amazing abs and that pink dick Lu Han can’t get out his mind until he’s stroked himself raw.

 

There’s silence outside the blankets, which means Yixing is probably trying to connect the dots.

 

“…Is this about Kyungsoo?”

 

Figures.

 

Lu Han emerges from under the blankets. “For the last time, no! It’s not about Kyungsoo! Do I think about kissing Kyungsoo? No! Do I think about Kyungsoo’s ass? No! Am I trying to erase the picture of Kyungsoo’s dick from my mind? No! Do I think about how many kittens I want to adopt with Kyungsoo? _No!_ ”

 

Yixing only blinks. “Then who _do_ you think about?”

 

“Kim Minseok!” Lu Han all but yells. Cat’s out of the bag now. Maybe a little more attentive best friend would have seen the cat quicker, but Yixing is pretty slow when it comes to these things. He had been dating his girlfriend for a year before it even dawned to him that they were dating. Luckily for him, the girl was very patient and head over heels for Yixing.

 

Then again, it’s not like Lu Han’s an expert when it comes to love either. That would explain why it has been 48 days since he last got kissed. By Minseok.

 

“Minseok-ge?” Yixing looks scandalized. “You think about his ass?”

 

Lu Han should be grateful Yixing only picked up Minseok’s ass from his angry rant and not the mention about his dick. The heat rises to his cheeks anyway. “Maybe.”

 

Yixing looks thoughtful. Then he nods. “Minseok-ge does have a pretty nice ass, doesn’t he? His ass cheeks are basically meant for spreading on hot days.”

 

Something about Yixing’s comment makes Lu Han’s temper rise. “You’re not allowed to think about his ass!”

 

“Eh? Why?” Yixing gapes at him.

 

“Well, for starters, you’re not in love with him”, Lu Han protests.

 

“And you are?”

 

“Yes!” Lu Han blurts out, and only a second later realizes what he’s said. He claps his hand over his mouth. Yixing’s eyes are wide as well, and he looks like the definition of “confused sheep”. Before he can start to question Lu Han’s words, the striker defends himself.

 

“No, that’s not what I meant! Not in love! Maybe in like. More like I just think about his lips. And well… lately his ass and…. you know. But not in love! It’s not like I think about him every day! …Well, okay, I do. _But_. Those are not romantic thoughts! I just think about how cute he is. Ah fuck. I mean cute like a hamster is! Minseok is like a cute little animal. That I’d like to take home and tuck in. And kiss senseless.”

 

At this point, Yixing just stares at Lu Han rambling on. The striker catches his gaze, and for once his friend doesn’t look like he’s about to fall asleep any second now. Lu Han thinks he may have said something weird. Well, weirder than usual, because Yixing is very well used to his normal weirdness by this point.

 

“Not that I usually kiss animals senseless. Only Minseok. Well, I would. If he let me.”

 

Yixing keeps staring.

 

“Uh…What was I trying to prove here?” Lu Han’s head is spinning. He’s suddenly saying out loud all the things he’s tried not to think about, let alone tell anyone else. “Oh yeah, I’m not in love with Minseok. I mean, sure, I joke about wanting to marry him every other practice and I know I stare at his abs in the showers and maybe I can’t exactly keep my hands off him but…”

 

But what?

 

But what indeed.

 

Maybe there was always a reason why Lu Han found himself latched onto Minseok’s side ever since he joined the team. He always thought it was only because he was the newest player at the time, didn’t know anyone on the team, and Minseok was kind enough to practice with the new guy with the accented Korean. Sure, they clicked pretty much right away, always finding something to talk about like European football or their favorite boy groups, and later clicking on the pitch as well. Lu Han had always excused his _possessive_ behavior (Yifan keeps calling it that much to Lu Han’s annoyance) at busy bus stations, where he’d loop his arms around Minseok’s shoulders to protect him from the crowds, as a way to show his gratitude to the older striker. Minseok had been kind to him, and Lu Han wanted to be kind in return. Sometimes that kindness just included staring at Minseok more than necessary, demanding they sleep in the same hotel room after late away games, and pretty much never leaving the elder’s side if possible. He never thought it was anything more than that, nothing more than Lu Han being a good teammate.

 

Now that he really thinks about his actions, things are starting to look very different. Maybe his intentions were once pure and platonic, but for the past 48 days (he’s still not counting) they sure haven’t been.

 

“Oh god. I’m totally in love with him, aren’t I?” Lu Han gasps when he comes to the horrifying conclusion.

 

Yixing’s expression says it all.

 

Lu Han’s fucked beyond being fucked.

 

At this point, he might as well get fucked by Minseok.

 

 

_53 days and 6 hours after The Incident._

_Dear diary._

_Getting fucked by someone is really hard when you can’t even get them to kiss you first._

 

_53 days and 8 hours after The Incident._

_Dear diary._

_How exactly is that fucking done anyway? Should I look it up_ _on_ _the internet?_

 

_53 days and 10 hours after The Incident._

_Dear diary._

_Holy fuck I’m never ever searching_ _for gay_ _porn ever again!_

_I’ll just ask Yixing. He’s always talking about his geges back in China who seem to know everything about everything._

_He can ask them and then give me a version that doesn’t make me wanna bleach my eyes out._

_Yixing, I’m putting my trust in you!_

 

_55 days and 23 hours after The Incident._

Yixing repays Lu Han’s trust by buying him lube and handing it over in the dressing room while they are all getting ready for practice. The striker is too stunned to do anything other than accept the pink tube his friend is handing him. The text on the tube says it’s strawberry flavored. Lu Han may have loved the taste of strawberry lip balm when he was younger, but that doesn’t mean his taste has evolved to _this._ The team’s defender smiles like he’s being a good friend, but right now Lu Han could do without Yixing in his life. This feels a lot like the case when his mom bought him condoms for the first time and handed them over while Lu Han had friends over. He had changed his social circles soon after that.

 

The room is soon filled with suggestive voices and Lu Han wants to kill everyone, even if that would mean they won’t be winning the league this year. He throws a murderous glare at Baekhyun after he catches the younger man making very inappropriate hand signs right next to Minseok. Minseok himself isn’t making a racket with everyone else, but there’s a clear smirk on his face when he looks at Lu Han and then at the tube in the striker’s hand. At least Minseok isn’t demanding to know who the lube is for like Baekhyun, but it doesn’t make Lu Han stop wanting to explain the situation to him anyway.

 

Yixing beats him to it. “Honglei-ge said strawberry is the best way to go.”

 

Lu Han closes his eyes and grits his teeth. He’s never asking for Yixing’s help ever again. “Send him my thanks…”

 

“Someone’s getting lucky tonight?” Minseok laughs from the other bench, making Lu Han groan. He then throws the lube at Minseok’s lap and the other striker barely catches it in time.

 

“You can have it. You’ll probably have a use for it first, anyway”, Lu Han mutters loud enough that Minseok can hear him over their still laughing teammates. It’s true. There’s no one else Lu Han wants to use the lube with than Minseok (honestly, he hasn’t even thought about the things that involve using lube yet), but Minseok… he actually doesn’t know if Minseok has someone he can use that stuff with. It’s something Lu Han doesn’t want to think about. Not now, and preferably not ever.

 

“Oh, thanks. Strawberry’s my favorite”, Minseok thanks him with a wink, putting the lube in his sports bag before taking his water bottle and walking out of the dressing room. Lu Han can only sit in silence, stunned. Did his teammate imply he’s used lube before? With someone? By himself? Lu Han’s mouth feels dry when he briefly entertains the thought of Minseok spreading the cold liquid on his hand and using it to…

 

Then he snaps out of it. There’s a time and place for these kind of thoughts, and it’s not in the full dressing room surrounded by his nosy teammates. Shaking his head, Lu Han gathers his stuff as well, ignores Baekhyun’s smug smirks, and all but runs out of the dressing room.

 

He’ll continue his interrupted fantasy later when he’s home again. Maybe this time he won’t even feel guilty about it.

 

 

_56 days and 6 hours after The Incident._

Lu Han feels as guilty as always. He’s unable to stop his hand from palming himself through his boxers while he thinks about what exactly Minseok could be doing with that tube of lube.

 

Lu Han hates himself and silently apologizes to Minseok for being the worst teammate ever.

 

He buries his face in the soft pillow to stop the quiet moans escaping his lips, feeling his cheeks burn with shame.

 

Still, he doesn’t stop.

 

 

_59 days after The Incident._

He doesn’t stop whining about the situation to Yixing, either.

 

It had gotten to a point where Yixing had actually asked him if Lu Han wanted to kiss him again. Probably just to shut Lu Han up, because a man’s best friend can only listen to so much crap about Minseok’s lips (and lately other body parts) and Lu Han wanting to kiss them before taking action.

 

Lu Han had quickly declined, and he hadn’t imagined the relief on Yixing’s face.

 

“Why don’t you just ask him to kiss you? It’s not that big of a deal. You asked me too.” Yixing puts the mug down. They are at a café because Lu Han’s sick and tired of moping around at home. He’d much rather mope in public.

 

“It’s not the same”, Lu Han explains, “I won’t die if you reject me.”

 

It’s true. He’ll die. If he never gets to kiss Minseok’s lips again, he’ll most certainly die. It doesn’t matter if they win the K3 league. It doesn’t matter if the Premier League scouts spot him. He’ll still die. It’s not even just about kissing anymore. He’ll probably die if he never gets to adopt those adorable ten kittens with Minseok and live together with him for the rest of his life.

 

Is Lu Han being overly dramatic? Probably. It doesn’t make his thoughts any less true.

 

Yixing’s face is a mix of disbelief and amusement. “You’ll die? What happened to you?”

 

“I don’t know”, Lu Han all but whines. “I think I opened Pandora’s box or something. I never should have kissed Minseok in the first place.” He really shouldn’t have. This whole _not_ straight experience isn’t good for Lu Han’s mental health. Or for his dick. He probably hasn’t jerked off this much since his early teenage years, when he had first discovered the activity. He’s really starting to regret handing the tube of lube over to Minseok.

 

“I agree. You should have swapped saliva with Kyungsoo and made me a dinner richer.” Yixing nods and sips his coffee. Lu Han’s doesn’t follow his friend.

 

“What dinner? And can you give it a rest with Kyungsoo? The joke got old like two years ago.”

 

“Forget it”, Yixing says with an easy smile, which means there’s a secret he doesn’t want to tell Lu Han. “And fine. I’m man enough to know when I’ve lost.”

 

Lu Han still understands nothing. Yixing gives him a pointed look.

 

“You should man up and just kiss Minseok-hyung. I don’t know how much of your whining I can take anymore.”

 

 

_62 days after The Incident._

Man up.

 

It’s easy for Yixing to say. Yixing isn’t the one Minseok is going to reject. Yixing won’t get a broken heart after Minseok probably looks at Lu Han like he’s crazy for wanting to kiss him. The truth is, Lu Han knows Minseok won’t look at him like that. Minseok will be his straightforward self and tell Lu Han no, and that will be it. Except that won’t be it. Not now when Lu Han has had time to think and realize just how whipped he is for Minseok, and that the box he accidentally opened isn’t even a box. It’s more like a treasure vault, the size of a small country. How could he possibly go back to thinking about random lips, random abs, the sound of random cute laughter and random full cheeks after Minseok says he doesn’t want any part in this not very platonic business. Lu Han’s already long crossed all the lines he set for himself, and there will be no life for him if he doesn’t get to share it with Minseok. He’s being pathetic, uncool and unmanly as hell, but he stopped caring about his image days ago. He’s in love and wants Minseok.

 

He also wants Minseok to score, Lu Han realizes when he snaps out of his thoughts and starts paying more attention to the field again.

 

It’s another game. One they should have no problem with, as the other team is somewhere in the bottom three in the league, but one they are currently losing 0-1 to anyway. All of their opponent’s eleven players are so low on their side of the field that even if Lu Han’s team controls the pace and the ball, there haven’t been many chances for them to score. Their team can’t get close to the goal as there are too many players defending it. Especially after the other team somehow managed to score from their only chance of the game and is now leading. Even their lone striker is defending, making it hard for Lu Han’s team to find any space on the field at all. Chanyeol’s almost at the center of the field, because there hasn’t been a serious attack on their goal in the last 30 minutes and their goalkeeper hates feeling jobless.

 

To make it worse, Lu Han himself is sitting on the bench. He had a slight knock on his foot earlier, and the coach doesn’t want to risk it. Not when there is a bigger game coming right after this supposedly easy one. Lu Han hates being subbed out, and he hates it even more when they are a goal down. They have another, decent striker on the field replacing Lu Han, but Lu Han knows it’s Minseok who’ll score the goal if anyone’s going to do it.

 

Which would be fine, except Minseok hasn’t scored in two months and the time on the clock is ticking. Only ten minutes left, and Lu Han really, really wants his striker partner to score. Not because he could, in theory, kiss him afterwards, but because he really wants to win this game. Or at least get a point out of it. They won’t win the league if they start fucking up against easy opponents now. Lu Han’s seen meltdowns happen to league leaders and he hopes this game isn’t the start of their own.

 

There’s barely 10 minutes left on the clock, and the anticipation is making Lu Han’s hands sweat. On the pitch Minseok tries to work his magic. He tries to get past the defender but is soon blocked by another one, who just sends the ball a long way to the other side. The other team doesn’t care about playing anymore — they are just parking the bus right in front of their own goal. After Chanyeol makes the goal kick, Lu Han’s team attacks again, swiftly passing the ball between them but without truly getting close to the other goal. Junmyeon passes the ball to Yixing, but Yixing has no options to send it forward. He kicks the ball to the defender next to him, but it’s not like Kyungsoo has any more options to pass the ball forward than him. He tries to send it to Jongdae who’s waiting near the sidelines, but the other team’s midfielder guarding Jongdae blocks the ball, kicking it out of the field. Lu Han sighs. The game doesn’t look good at all.

 

Not until Zitao gets the ball. Lu Han doesn’t know if it’s skill or luck, but their middle fielder does something amazing with his legs and gets past the defender blocking him. Lu Han didn’t even know Zitao could make tricks like that. But right now, he doesn’t care. The only thing he cares about is Zitao running forward with the ball, Zitao passing the ball and the ball reaching Minseok. He’s surrounded by two defenders, and the third one is only a couple of meters away. It’s not an easy place to pass the ball, let alone score a goal, but that doesn’t stop Lu Han from jumping off his seat. He finds himself yelling something — or probably just swearing English words out loud, because that’s what he does when he’s getting excited.

 

His excitement grows when Minseok protects the ball well: with only one touch, he spins around with it, leaving the two defenders behind his back, confusion growing on their faces. The space is tiny, but so is Minseok. His tiny yet muscular arms are keeping the third defender from getting the ball or pushing him over. His strong legs are positioning themselves for the kick. Lu Han can’t see it, but he can imagine Minseok’s cat-like eyes scanning the goal for the briefest moment before he kicks the ball. It’s not the most powerful kick because Minseok lacks momentum, having to kick the ball while standing almost still. But it doesn’t matter since he’s so close to the goal. It doesn’t matter because Minseok has the accuracy needed, and Lu Han can see the ball going for the left corner of the goal. The goalkeeper reaches for it, but it’s all in vain.

 

Lu Han’s started running before the ball even properly hits the net. He hears the roar coming from their bench. Hears the substitute players and the coaches celebrating. From the corner of his eye, he sees Chanyeol trying to either strangle or hug poor Kyungsoo. How exactly their goalkeeper decides to celebrate the goal with their defender, Lu Han doesn’t know or care. He only cares about running towards Minseok, yelling his name out loud and getting his attention. Not caring that he isn’t the first one celebrating the goal with the other striker this time, not caring that he probably should be celebrating it with the other substitute players and not running towards his teammates on the field. Lu Han doesn’t care about those things at all. Not when Minseok shakes off the teammates surrounding him and opens his arms for Lu Han to run into. Lu Han’s too overwhelmed by the goal and the thought of kissing his partner doesn’t even cross his mind when Minseok closes his arms around him. They stumble backwards because Lu Han’s speed and momentum are too much for Minseok to handle when the striker all but jumps on him. They fall onto the grass together, Minseok hitting the ground and Lu Han hitting Minseok’s soft body. It doesn’t hurt. Like it doesn’t hurt when the rest of their teammates join them, and soon Lu Han and Minseok are at the very bottom of a messy pile consisting of yelling, happy players.

 

They should probably get up quickly instead of acting like they’ve just won the Champion’s League. The game is still only 1-1, and there’s barely time to score the winning goal even without this over-the-top goal celebration they are having. But no one in their team is thinking about that right now. They all know a point is still enough to keep them on top of the league. It’s a little difficult to breathe, but Lu Han isn’t sure if it’s the seven teammates on top of him or the realization that his face is smashed to Minseok’s. Their cheeks are touching, and this close it’s hard to see, but Lu Han can feel the other striker smiling beneath him.

 

Lu Han lifts his head a little bit, just enough to make eye contact with Minseok. Minseok is indeed smiling, his face flushed from all the running and from all the weight on top of him. His eyes are dark, and there’s something about his gaze that makes Lu Han feel hot and heavy. Wanting to distract himself, he lets his gaze drop down a bit to Minseok’s red lips. It’s a mistake, as all the thoughts from the past weeks rush into his head. He quickly forgets all about the goal and the game, only feeling Minseok’s soft body under his. Despite the multiple limbs and bodies surrounding them and making the space tight, Lu Han manages to lift his hand and run his fingers through Minseok’s sweaty light pink hair. Minseok opens his mouth to say something, but Lu Han is faster. He acts on pure instinct and closes the space between their faces again, pressing his lips to Minseok’s soft ones for the second time.

 

If the other gasps, Lu Han doesn’t hear it. The sound is muffled by his lips and by the nosy pile of players on top of him. Last time he barely paid attention to Minseok’s mouth, too high on the goal he had just scored, but this time is different. Their teammates on top of them are hiding the duo well. It almost feels like they are under blankets, kissing in secret. Lu Han’s mind is sharp and ready to register every little detail about Minseok’s mouth. It is soft, and Lu Han’s glad he didn’t imagine things a few weeks ago. The kiss tastes salty mixed with the taste of the energy drink Minseok drank on the halftime break. Unconsciously, Lu Han grips his teammate’s hair a little tighter, slightly tilting Minseok’s head so he has better access to his half-open mouth. He doesn’t feel Minseok’s mouth moving, which is understandable. It also makes Lu Han feel dirty. This has to be the last time. He can’t keep using Minseok like this. Can’t keep assaulting him every time he scores, can’t keep imagining how this would feel somewhere else than on the football field, without anyone else around them. Lu Han’s going to enjoy this the very last time, and then he’s going to stop. He’s going to return to being just teammates with Minseok and stop thinking about how much he wants to kiss him all the damn time. He’s going to sleep at night and not think about sweat dripping down Minseok’s muscles, or about how his mouth is made for sucking something other than coffee through straws. He’ll stop all that nonsense. No more thinking about how soft Minseok’s unmoving lips feel against his. Or how good the pressure of their two bodies squashed together feels. Lu Han won’t think about the wet feeling of Minseok slightly opening his mouth more and the tip of his tongue tickling against Lu Han’s closed lips.

 

He won’t… wait. What?

 

What tongue?

 

Lu Han opens his eyes and blinks. Then he blinks again and lifts his head up to look at Minseok. Their lips come apart, and when Lu Han’s mind is finally clear enough to register the look of Minseok’s slightly swollen, kissed red lips, there is no sign of tongue anywhere.

 

Had he imagined all that?

 

Wouldn’t be the first time.

 

Before Lu Han has time to take another look at the other player and apologize to Minseok for kissing him _again_ , he’s being pulled back by Yifan, separating him and Minseok and finally filling Lu Han’s squashed lungs with air and making his head less fuzzy. He isn’t sure when the pile of players dispersed, but he can only hope it was after he was done kissing Minseok. He also hopes the very close contact with Minseok’s body, mixed with kissing and feelings caused by the goal, haven’t awakened anything in his lower half. Lu Han would hate to walk back to the bench with a semi.

 

“Go back before the referee gives you a yellow card”, their vice-captain commands, and Lu Han doesn’t even get to catch Minseok’s gaze one last time before Yifan is already pushing him towards the benches. He jogs back, resisting the urge to touch his lips and _trying_ to resist the urge to think about the kiss. He fails miserably as his minds rewinds back, making Lu Han’s heart speed up at the very memory of Minseok’s lightly kissed face. He knows he promised to stop all this loving Minseok bullshit, and he will. Just not right this very second. Maybe after the game. When he’s home alone and his lips don’t tingle from the memory of the elder’s lips against them.

 

The rest of the game goes in a haze. They don’t miraculously score another goal, but when the referee blows his whistle, Lu Han isn’t even that mad about the 1-1 result. He follows the other substitutes back to the field, shaking hands with the opposing team’s players and patting the backs of his teammates.  Minseok is at the other side of the field, and it’s more than fine for Lu Han as he isn’t sure how he should face his teammate. Apologizing seems silly since it’s already been 15 minutes since the kiss, but saying nothing feels wrong too. The last time, Minseok hadn’t minded, and Lu Han hopes it’s the case today as well.

 

The team walks back to the dressing room, and Lu Han’s having difficulties shaking off Yixing, who seems more than worried about his tiny injury. He’s one to talk anyway, always directing attention elsewhere when people question him about his old waist injury. As a revenge for that, Lu Han isn’t giving any detailed answers to his friend. Eye for an eye, or in this case waist injury info for foot injury info. Yixing makes a pouting face when Lu Han refuses to share anything with him, but the striker doesn’t budge. Behind them he hears Minseok laughing about something Zitao said, and it makes Lu Han’s stomach dance to the tune of the recent girl group song he caught on TV last night. Somehow, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be “just” teammates with Minseok very soon.

 

He must try, though. It’s the promise he made to himself and one he intends on keeping.

 

The mission starts with a very cold shower.

 

Lu Han’s quick to discard all his clothes, grab a fresh towel from his bag, and head for the showers before he even thinks about getting a sneak peek at Minseok undressing. He picks the shower in the far corner, opens the tab, and lets the cold water hit his face and body. It feels oddly relaxing even if his skin gets goosebumps. Closing his eyes, Lu Han tries to shut down the world around him to give himself time to calm down. Which turns out to be impossible when there’s Sehun under the shower next to him, fighting with Zitao over who gets to use their expensive shampoo first. Lu Han doesn’t understand why they had to be cheapskates in the first place and not just buy two shampoos instead of fighting over the usership of that single bottle every damn time. He closes his eyes when he hears Minseok enter the shower room, bickering with Baekhyun. Lu Han stays under the cooling water patiently, waiting for the majority of the team to finish their showers, hoping to wash away all his _feelings_ , too.

 

It isn’t until he’s getting literal cold shivers from the cooling water that Lu Han turns off the tab and steps out of the shower. Thankfully, Minseok’s already dressed by the time Lu Han steps back into the dressing room. The striker dresses slowly, listening to their coach analyzing the match. Lu Han tries to pay attention, if only to stop himself from turning his head towards Minseok sitting on the opposite bench. Despite his efforts to stay awake doziness finds him, and soon Lu Han’s eyelids are starting to feel heavy. Maybe it’s the slight injury or the kissing or something else, but he feels more exhausted today than he usually does after games. The room slowly fades away as Lu Han closes his eyes. He decides only to listen to the coach and sees no need to keep his eyes open. It’s not like the coach is using the marker board anymore. Gradually, the voices get quieter, and soon Lu Han is fully asleep without even realizing it.

 

He only wakes up when he feels an arm shaking his shoulder. Quickly snapping back to reality and trying to act like he didn’t just doze off, Lu Han concentrates his gaze on their coach again, only to realize the man isn’t there anymore. A quick look around the dressing room reveals all his teammates have left too. All except one. The one who woke him up.

 

Lu Han’s almost scared to look at that round face.

 

“Did you already take something for your injury, or does your stamina suck that much?” Minseok smirks in the basic Minseok manner. The joke makes Lu Han breathe a little easier as he swats his teammate’s hand away from his shoulder.

 

“Shut up. How long was I sleeping?”

 

Minseok checks the clock on the wall. “Only for like half an hour. You know your face looks fine enough even without the extra beauty sleep, don’t you?”

 

Lu Han checks the time too, not believing what the old clock is showing him. “Half an hour!? You should have woken me up!”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, Minseok sits down next to Lu Han. It makes Lu Han want to both shift closer and run away at the same time. “You seemed tired. Are you really sure you’re okay?”

 

_No,_ Lu Han thinks.

 

“Yes”, he says.

 

Minseok doesn’t say anything in response, but his eyebrows scrunch together, making the elder look worried. Lu Han snorts. “No need to worry about me. We all know you only like to baby Sehun and Zitao anyway.” He’s trying to joke to ease the mood and not have his breath hitch because Minseok is sitting too close. After hearing his reply, Minseok hits Lu Han’s shoulder, and to Lu Han’s horror, doesn’t move his hand away. Instead he lets it rest there, massaging Lu Han’s shoulder gently. It’s absolutely normal between them and it’s absolute hell for Lu Han right now. His only salvation is the fact that at least it’s only his shoulder Minseok’s massaging and not his thigh. That would only be asking for trouble, and Lu Han isn’t keen on taking another cold shower today.

 

“I always worry about you”, Minseok says softly without even as much as a hint of sarcasm in his voice. His hand squeezes Lu Han’s shoulder, and the striker feels like he’s going to puke. Except the only thing he’s going to throw up is a confession that will just ruin everything. Minseok’s soft gaze is too much for him. This whole situation is something Lu Han can’t handle right now. Somehow the mood has switched to almost tender, making it hard for Lu Han to stop the confession from escaping his lips.

 

“I…” he begins, torn between wanting to let everything out and taking the secret to his grave. He was full of determination in the showers, ready to let go of Minseok and act like he’s the best striker partner and nothing more. But right now, there’s something about Minseok’s gaze that makes the striker feel almost hopeful. The elder looks at him, slightly tilting his head as if he expects Lu Han to say something life-changing. Maybe he hadn’t imagined that tongue licking his lips earlier after all.

 

“Wouldn’t want our top striker to injure himself while we are leading the league. We still have win the rest of the games, you know.” Minseok pats the striker’s shoulder twice and then draws his hand back, making the Chinese man swallow down his confession. Lu Han curses himself mentally for getting his hopes up, even if only briefly. Minseok’s all business again, the softness gone from his eyes and replaced by amusement. Lu Han doesn’t know what made him hope for anything in the first place. But then again, he’s always been the type to reach out to the stars he knows are too far away.

 

“We’d still have you. Now that you’ve shaken the monkey off your back”, Lu Han replies, an odd sense of disappointment washing over him. His shoulder feels cold, and if he was the Lu Han from three months ago, he would throw his arm over Minseok’s shoulder to chase the warm feeling back. He doesn’t, though, and it feels weird, probably for the both of them. Have there really been moments when they are this close and neither of them is touching the other? Or more like Lu Han isn’t touching Minseok. He’s been trying very hard not to ruin anything between them, but seeing the space left between their bodies, Lu Han thinks he’s already failed at that.

 

“Good for you, huh?” Minseok smirks, turning his head so it’s now fully facing the striker. Lu Han’s eyes shift to the full lips in front of him and there’s no way Minseok doesn’t notice it. Ears reddening, Lu Han tries to save the situation and his dignity anyway.

 

“Good for the whole team, you mean.”

 

Then he feels it, Minseok leaning forward and balancing himself better by putting his small hand on Lu Han’s left thigh. It feels like the whole dressing room is suddenly bathed in a red light, speakers yelling _DANGER, DANGER, DANGER_ around them. A small gasp escapes Lu Han’s mouth before he shuts it firmly. He’s still wearing his football shorts, which pretty much give away the very second Lu Han’s body registers the hand close to the danger area. He groans mentally when he feels something twitch in his shorts. Thinking his only option is trying to distract Minseok from looking down he open his mouth again.

 

“It was a good go---” Lu Han begins to say something, anything, to glue Minseok’s attention to his face. Maybe if he talks about the goal the elder scored, Minseok will get excited and clap his hands together like he does when he’s hyped about something. Really, Lu Han doesn’t care what it takes, he just wants the hand removed from his thigh before there’s any _visible_ damage. However, he doesn’t get to finish his sentence, let alone the plan, when Minseok speaks again. This time the tone of his voice drops lower, like it does whenever he raps parts of new k-pop songs at noraebang.

 

“You don’t have to wait for me to score if you want to kiss me again.”

 

Lu Han’s pretty sure his heart stops, and if there was a doctor in the room he would be declared dead on the spot. His brain freezes too, and all Lu Han can do is stare at Minseok. The elder’s face is neutral, he isn’t smirking or frowning. Minseok’s simply waiting for Lu Han to say something. But right now, it’d be easier to play alone against the whole team of Real Madrid than to get simple words out. Lu Han refuses to believe Minseok just said _that_. Maybe he misheard. Maybe he’s still asleep. Maybe he hears whatever he wants to hear.

 

Whatever he may have imagined the older striker saying, he definitely isn’t imagining the hand slowly rubbing his thigh. Lu Han’s mouth feels dry and he knows he probably looks like a fish out of water – gasping for air, mouth open and eyes bulging in their sockets. The other striker looks back at him, blank face melting away and revealing a slightly amused grin. It makes Lu Han wonder if he indeed heard the words correctly. Maybe Minseok was only joking. Like how Lu Han’s always joking about wanting to marry Minseok and saying if he had to pick a guy to do, it would be his striker partner. Except he isn’t joking about it nowadays. No, nowadays Lu Han’s pretty damn serious about wanting to marry Minseok. Or at least take him on a date. And maybe kiss him while they’re on that date. But Minseok shouldn’t be able to know all of that.

 

“Who”, Lu Han finally starts when he’s sure he can manage to get something other than a whine or whimper out from his mouth. “Who said I wanted to kiss you again?”

 

Minseok doesn’t answer him, looking down instead, gaze directed at Lu Han’s crotch. Lu Han looks down too, and _oh. Of course._ Figures that part of himself would betray him.

 

“It was an exciting game”, he weakly tries. Minseok looks up again, and Lu Han can hear the sarcastic “really” even when Minseok isn’t saying anything. It’s basically written all over his face. It doesn’t help that Lu Han’s always been a pretty bad liar. He’s got this face where he can’t hide his emotions very well. It doesn’t usually bother him, as there’s nothing he wishes to hide. But right now, the only thing he wants is for his face to stop telling Minseok his boner is all thanks to the elder. Like all the boners these past two months have been. Lu Han can’t even remember the last time he got a hard-on when thinking about someone other than the petite guy owning the prettiest set of monolid cat-eyes and the fullest cheeks.

 

His pitiful excuses do nothing when Minseok moves his hand closer to Lu Han’s crotch. It almost seems like the elder does it by accident when leaning closer to the striker, but for Lu Han, it doesn’t matter. The tips of Minseok’s fingers brush against the promising tent in the striker’s shorts. The touch is faint, and Lu Han shouldn’t even be able to feel it, except of course he does. He feels it as strongly as if Minseok was jerking him off. Lu Han gasps at the touch, his head feeling dizzy as all the blood in his body seems to travel south.

 

“Exciting enough for popping a boner an hour later?” Minseok finally whispers and makes Lu Han feel like a mouse trapped in a corner, facing a pretty cat trying to eat him whole. His brain is trying to come up with a plausible excuse, but his eyes are busy staring at Minseok’s lips again. There’s a tiny mole on his upper lip, one that Lu Han only notices now even though he’s been staring at those lips for the past two months. As if preparing for something, Minseok licks his lips, and Lu Han catches a pretty sight of a pink tongue before it disappears back into the mouth, leaving the other striker’s lips shiny with saliva.  Lu Han hears his heart hammering in his chest, and there’s no way Minseok doesn’t hear it too. It’s moments like these that make Lu Han really miss their noisy teammates around them. Minseok’s gaze on him is as unmoving as a sturdy rock, full of answers to the questions the younger man is yet to ask. The striker makes a weak attempt to stop himself, but the elder’s lips are too inviting for him to really resist. Lu Han only hates himself a little when he quickly licks his own lips before leaning forward to capture Minseok’s with his own for the second time today.

 

The experience is nerve-wracking. There’s no familiar scent of grass and sweat surrounding them, there’s no one yelling in the background, there’s no one else here but them. Lu Han almost wants to cry when his lips first connect with Minseok’s lips. He keeps fucking up, keeps kissing his partner even when he’s not supposed to. He kisses the corner of Minseok’s unmoving mouth hesitantly and silently apologizes for the hundredth time already. The voice in his head tells Lu Han he needs to pull away now and accept whatever punishment the other striker lays on him, but the striker is unable to listen to it. Minseok is like a magnet, pulling him in and making it impossible to let go, Lu Han thinks when he finds himself drowning deeper and deeper in the kiss.

 

After the initial light press on the lips, Lu Han’s hand moves behind Minseok’s neck, pulling the elder’s face closer to his. Minseok still isn’t responding, but he isn’t pushing Lu Han away either like he’s supposed to do. It encourages Lu Han further as he presses his lips against the other’s more forcefully, really tasting him. He wishes Minseok would shove Lu Han away already and yell at him like he deserves. But still, he doesn’t. Gone is the sweat from their lips as Lu Han doesn’t taste salt anymore; it’s replaced with the taste of the lip balm Minseok likes to use. Lu Han opens his mouth and gently licks the vanilla taste from the other’s lips, ignoring the warning voice in his head that has started to sound more and more like an untuned radio channel. He’s so used to kissing Minseok’s passive lips (as used as you can be after doing it only twice) that he doesn’t immediately register the unfamiliar pressure when Minseok finally pushes his lips against Lu Han’s for the first time. The shock of it freezes the striker for a moment, but Minseok still doesn’t stop kissing him. His mouth is closed at first and Lu Han can feel the plump lips pressing into his. Then Minseok opens his mouth, and suddenly there’s that feeling of a tongue tickling against his lips and it feels too familiar, making Lu Han think he might not have imagined things earlier after all. His brain works on autopilot, making Lu Han open his mouth too. Minseok doesn’t waste any more time and Lu Han can feel the elder’s tongue touching his, and honestly, it’s too much for him. The tongue also serves as a rope pulling Lu Han out of the deep water, making him realize he’s kissing Minseok again even though he promised to stop. He’s never been this bad at keeping his promises before.

 

“Fuck”, he mouths against Minseok’s lips, fully intending to push himself away and furiously apologize yet again. He’s really done it this time.

 

“Maybe later”, Minseok replies before Lu Han can start apologizing. Then the elder presses his lips against Lu Han’s again. Hungrier this time, more desperate, and if Lu Han didn’t know better he’d say Minseok’s been waiting for this for a long time. Lu Han can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that Minseok is kissing _him._ Is it a pity kiss? Minseok finally feeling sorry for Lu Han and deciding to kiss him one last time before rejecting the striker? Is that even a thing? Giving someone a kiss to remember them by before denying all future kisses. Lu Han’s probably only going mad if that’s the case. He’d rather Minseok never kissed him back in the first place, because after that it’s a hundred times more difficult to get over him. He faintly feels Minseok’s hand curling into his shirt, the other one still squeezing his thigh. It’s getting harder and harder for Lu Han to concentrate on anything other than the firm press of the elder’s lips against his and the taste of the other’s tongue inside his mouth. The striker doesn’t even hear the embarrassing moan he lets out when Minseok suddenly sucks on his lower lip. This is way over the top for a simple pity kiss, Lu Han thinks and then stops thinking altogether.

 

It’s useless to try to analyze anything when Lu Han doesn’t have the slightest clue what’s going on anymore. All he knows is that Minseok’s kissing him. Voluntarily. A moment ago Lu Han was ready to stop all of this, but every time Minseok takes total control of the striker’s mouth, Lu Han finds himself moaning more and caring less. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, guilt mixed with desire, and Lu Han doesn’t know which one he should be feeling right now. Every time he thinks he should stop, Minseok swirls his tongue inside Lu Han’s mouth, making his head go completely blank. Their poses are little awkward: only Lu Han’s upper body is facing Minseok, and the twist honestly doesn’t feel very good as he can feel his muscles starting to strain. Maybe Minseok’s in similar pain because he suddenly lets go of Lu Han, pulling back briefly and finally removing his hand from near the danger area that is Lu Han’s crotch (and now a _very_ visible hard-on that Lu Han would be very embarrassed of if his mind wasn’t elsewhere), and stands up. For a moment, fear invades Lu Han’s mind, making him think he really did fuck everything up and any second now Minseok is going to announce he’s changing teams because his teammate couldn’t keep his lips off him.

 

Before Lu Han coaches himself into full panic mode, Minseok moves again and climbs on the striker’s lap, putting his hands on the other’s shoulders. Lu Han barely has time to breathe in some much-needed air when the soft feeling of Minseok’s lips returns against his. The feelings inside Lu Han’s head are mixed, but soon the desire wins over again too easily. He still has no idea what’s going on, but that doesn’t stop him from touching Minseok. To better balance the man sitting on top of him, Lu Han pulls Minseok closer by his hips, which is either a grave mistake or the best decision he’s ever made as he feels Minseok’s crotch pressing against his. An uncontrollable moan escapes Lu Han’s mouth when Minseok’s half-hard dick rubs against his. He bites back the retort that it seemed like he wasn’t the only one who found the match exciting. Minseok doesn’t seem to mind the sensation, and to Lu Han’s horror, the elder starts to lightly grind his body against Lu Han’s. His partner’s hands find themselves at Lu Han’s neck and tuck the overgrown brown hair there with more force than necessary. It hurts a bit, but the fact that it’s Minseok who’s doing it is enough for Lu Han to actually enjoy the pain. His own hands are still pressing Minseok down by his hips, and even though Lu Han has had dreams alarmingly similar to this lately, he’s not quite sure what to do with his hands. Minseok grinds against him with more force, and Lu Han doesn’t know whether he should concentrate on his teammate’s mouth on him or on what’s happening lower. It’s all very simple and teenager-y and of course it works on Lu Han embarrassingly fast and well. To save his manly image and stop himself from coming in his football shorts too quickly, Lu Han turns his head, escaping Minseok’s lips and gasping for air again.

 

“Wait”, he rasps. Minseok isn’t bothered about the sudden loss of lips against his. He kisses Lu Han’s cheek instead. Then the side of his jaw. Then his neck, and Lu Han’s pretty sure that counts as sucking more than kissing. It fuels all the wrong sensations in his body, and Lu Han needs a breather more than ever before he explodes.

 

“Minseok”, he tries again. “Wait.”

 

Maybe it’s the tone of his voice, but Minseok actually stops this time, lifting his head to check what’s wrong with Lu Han. His face is flushed, eyes only half open and lips swollen. Lu Han’s brain is close to short-circuiting, and he’s sure he’s never seen a sexier sight than the one in front of him now. He’d like nothing more than to get back to kissing Minseok, but there are so many questions starting to swarm in his head now that he’s stopped to think about them that the striker needs a proper pause.

 

“What’s wrong?” Minseok asks. Casually, like they hadn’t been making out for the past two minutes or more. Could easily have been ten minutes. Maybe half an hour. Lu Han doesn’t know, as keeping track of time was pretty much the last thing on his mind.

 

“Wh… nothing’s wrong! Except, _what is this_?” Lu Han’s breath is still shaky. His hands are shaky too, and the only way to stop them from shaking so much is gripping Minseok’s hips tighter.

 

Minseok cocks his head sideways like he doesn’t understand what Lu Han means. “What is what? You _are_ familiar with kissing, right?”

 

Lu Han’s face floods with red. Typical of Minseok to make fun of him. “Duh! That’s not the issue here!”

 

“Then what is?” Minseok speaks slowly, like he’s asking a child. (Or maybe he’s as out of breath as the striker is. The striker sure hopes so.) Lu Han feels slightly offended and wonders if it’s too late to just to shut up and get back to kissing. He was handling that activity much better than this. But he still needs to know.

 

“Why are _you_ kissing me?!” Lu Han blurts out the first question burning in his mind.

 

“Same reason why you were kissing me earlier”, Minseok retorts back. It’s scary how composed he looks and sounds while Lu Han is having a slight mental breakdown over everything. Or more like has been having one for the past few weeks.

 

“You want to adopt kittens with me?” Lu Han answers intelligently. It isn’t the only reason why he’s been kissing Minseok, but it’s still better than blurting out that he’s in love with his teammate. Lu Han almost wishes he was still just obsessing over the elder’s lips and nothing else. Minseok looks at him like he’s a lunatic. He’s probably right.

 

“I… well, I haven’t really thought that far yet. Mostly because I’ve never thought about adopting animals in the first place.”

 

“Then how far have you thought about it?” Lu Han questions. Thought about what? He’s hearing what Minseok is saying, but it isn’t making any sense in his head. What ‘it’ are they talking about again?

 

“Mostly I’ve just thought about my hand in your pants. Or maybe marking your pretty neck so that everyone can see just whose striker partner you are.” Minseok explains calmly. Lu Han is anything but calm. The elder can’t just casually drop things like “my hand in your pants” and expect Lu Han to act perfectly normal. Not paying attention to the Chinese man’s stunned expression, Minseok continues. “Sometimes I go as far as imagining how pretty you’d look clenching around my finger, or better yet, around my cock.” The other man sounds like he’s listing the pros and cons of new expensive football cleats instead of saying all those filthy things out loud like it was nothing. Lu Han doesn’t know where the extra blood came from, but he feels his face burning stronger than before. The rest of the blood goes somewhere else and Lu Han’s football shorts feel tighter than they should.

 

“You… you want to _fuck_ me?” He lets out a high-pitched shriek. Lu Han’s half sure he’s dreaming all of this, because that was Minseok dirty talking to him just now and that’s not possible. Minseok is baozi. Round and safe. Made of gummy smiles and a nice laugh. He’s full of aegyo at practice and looks like he’s 15 instead of 25 (Lu Han can relate). Sure, sometimes he likes to shake his ass and roll those hips sinfully, claiming he’s just warming up. And Lu Han clearly remembers an occasion where they had gone into a bar and a slightly tipsy Minseok had tried to give Baekhyun a lap dance (Lu Han had stopped the elder in time because it was clear Baekhyun wasn’t going to do so). He has nice abs, and there’s something dangerous about the long silver earring he often wears off the pitch, and… okay, Lu Han is starting to see how it’s possible for Minseok to know how to talk dirty.

 

“Honestly”, Minseok begins, not catching the growing panic on Lu Han’s face. “At this point, I don’t care about who does the fucking as long as it gets done.”

 

Lu Han opens his mouth. So Minseok wants to fuck him or let him… yeah. Cool. It’s all cool. He’s cool with it. He’s not freaking out at all. He’s watched gay porn once, he knows this stuff. Lu Han’s _not_ freaking out.

 

Except he totally is. Sure, he’s spent practically every day thinking about kissing Minseok, and lately pretty much every night _not_ thinking about his teammate’s well-toned body and certainly _not_ jerking off to that image. But not once have his fantasies gone _that_ far. Mostly because Lu Han had foolishly thought Minseok was innocent, only caring about football and coffee and perhaps TVXQ on top of those things. He’s felt guilty enough under the blankets when his thoughts strayed to his teammate’s abs and then a little lower. That had been enough, and Lu Han hadn’t wanted or allowed himself to think further. His thoughts had been dirty enough without thinking about Minseok bouncing on his lap like some random girl from university (ok, so maybe he had thought about it _once,_ but he’d been drunk and full of regret the next day).

 

Now Lu Han’s not sure which one of them is going to be bouncing, anyway. He’s only ever been with girls, and suddenly even the thought of spreading _his_ legs for once makes him shiver. Especially when it sounded like Minseok did, in fact, want Lu Han to be the one doing the spreading and not the other way around. Even if he had said he wouldn’t mind either way afterwards. Now that he really thinks about it, and even looks down, there’s… yep, that’s someone else’s clothed erection pressing against his own. It’s one thing to think about these things and another to be actually doing them. Lu Han swallows nothing, trying to calm himself. He’s not freaking out. Nope. No way.

 

“You’re freaking out”, Minseok finally comments when Lu Han, despite having his mouth open, hasn’t said a word in a while. He sounds concerned, which finally forces Lu Han to stop wondering if he’s going to be alright with the whole Minseok sticking his fingers (and probably something else too) in him -business.

 

“I’m not!” The striker squeaks. Yes, he’s totally freaking out. Things are going fast. A little too fast. Just this morning, he was wondering if he’d ever get a chance to kiss his teammate again, only for Minseok to end up dry humping against him later on.  Lu Han isn’t exactly a virgin who needs to hold hands before kissing the person he likes but he’d like to at least talk about this whole ordeal before ruining his boxers thanks to Minseok’s skillful hip rolls.

 

If his high-pitched voice wasn’t enough to give away how messed up Lu Han’s head is right now, his panicked expression surely delivers the truth to Minseok. He lets go of Lu Han’s shoulders and detaches himself from his lap. Before Lu Han has time to whine (he may be freaking out, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be separated from Minseok), Minseok speaks. “Sorry”, he apologizes, biting his lower lip and looking like his normal cute self again. His cheeks are still flushed and lips swollen, but the worried look Minseok has on his face cuts down on the sexiness levels.

 

“I… I shouldn’t have done that.”

 

_Done what?_ Lu Han thinks but keeps quiet because Minseok looks like he still has more to say.

 

“Sorry. My assumptions were wrong, it seems”, he continues.

 

“Assumptions?” Lu Han manages to ask when Minseok’s voice goes silent. The elder’s face is flustered, and he’s clearly embarrassed. Lu Han thinks it’s a little too late to start feeling ashamed now and not the moment Minseok first rubbed himself against the striker. Or when he revealed what exactly he’d like to do to Lu Han. The striker himself is running a bit hot and cold at the moment. Based on the things his teammate had said earlier, it doesn’t seem like Lu Han’s _just_ a teammate for Minseok either. Whether it’s a physical thing (Lu Han’s very aware of the fact that his looks are well above mediocre and it wouldn’t be the first time a guy has shown interest) or not, Lu Han still doesn’t know. He supposes kissing Minseok would be fine even if the other doesn’t want to have a grand wedding and live together with those adorable adopted kittens. It certainly beats not getting to kiss Minseok ever again. However, the striker doesn’t miss the regret spreading on the elder’s face. Lu Han can only hope this ends any other way than Minseok wanting to avoid him for the rest of the season.

 

“I assumed you’d finally stopped being in denial about liking me too.” Minseok flashes a small smile that looks sad more than anything. The hurt expression tugs at Lu Han’s heartstrings, but his brain catches on something else entirely. Something he thinks Minseok just implied.

 

“You… you _like_ me?!” Lu Han tries to understand the situation. Minseok did say ‘too’, right? You don’t say ‘too’ unless you do as well, right? _Right?!_ He’s never even considered the possibility of Minseok liking guys, let alone liking Lu Han back.  His striker partner’s always cool and collected around Lu Han. Doesn’t try to touch him on every opportunity available. Doesn’t demand that Lu Han has to sit next to him on the bus or sleep in the same hotel room as him. Not once has he invited himself to Lu Han’s house and demanded to see his baby pictures. Lu Han’s just a normal teammate to Minseok. Like Minseok was to Lu Han until the striker messed up and started wanting more.

 

Minseok stares at him, unblinking, like he usually does when he’s reconsidering Lu Han’s IQ.

 

“Of course I like you. You think I’d get like this if I didn’t?” Minseok glances down, making Lu Han follow his gaze. There it is, the evidence of their earlier session still visible through Minseok’s blue shorts.

 

“Oh”, is Lu Han’s lame response. “You like me.”

 

“Obviously.” Minseok rolls his eyes.

 

“And you want to fuck me.” Lu Han continues to list the things he’s found out today. Minseok liking him. _Holy shit! Unbelievable! The kitten adoption dream lives on!_ Minseok getting hard because of Lu Han’s body. _Thanks mom and dad for my attractive looks and award-winning personality_! Minseok wanting to do him. _Potentially a little nerve wracking but still kind of amazing!_ At least it will be once Lu Han has gathered more knowledge about the details (this time he won’t even consider asking Yixing). There’s a strange feeling forming inside his stomach, and the corners of his mouth keep twitching. The striker’s not sure what it is, but the feeling is pretty similar to those times when Lu Han imagines lifting up the K3 league trophy at the end of the season.

 

“That…” Minseok shifts his weight from one leg to another awkwardly, reminding Lu Han that the other still thinks he’s in the middle of a freak-out over this.

 

Is he still freaking out? A bit. But it’s a happy freak-out. Lu Han’s freaking out because he’s starting to realize there’s a possibility that he won’t have to stop kissing Minseok after today after all. It seems he can keep doing it, and apparently lots of other things too. The corners of his mouth keep twitching, and Lu Han finally realizes why. He’s smiling. He’s happy.

 

And when Lu Han’s happy, he does what a happy Lu Han does – makes physical contact with Minseok (based on that, you could even argue that Lu Han’s happy very often). He pulls Minseok back to his lap and his teammate makes a cute surprised noise, clearly not expecting that to be Lu Han’s reaction. When Minseok is back to sitting on him, safe and sound, Lu Han strokes his soft cheeks with his fingers.

 

“I’m okay with that”, he confesses. Lu Han’s not 100% okay with it yet, but he will be. He’s always okay with things when they include Minseok, whether it’s fucking, making giant hearts with their combined hands for the fans, or dressing up as round chickens to collect money for the children’s’ hospital. He’s probably going to have to watch a little more gay porn after this to see how things actually work and to make sure he doesn’t freak out when things finally proceed that far. They are equal partners on the football field, so Lu Han shouldn’t let Minseok just automatically take care of everything about this matter either.

 

Minseok is visibly surprised by his answer. Lu Han didn’t know he had freaked out enough to make his partner doubt him that strongly.

 

“Really?” The elder asks, probably just to make sure he’s hearing correctly. Lu Han can’t blame him, he’s still vaguely fearing all this is just a dream and he’ll wake up any second now. Minseok sitting on his lap, face round and red, saying that he likes him? Totally too good to be true. Somehow, right now, Lu Han doesn’t even care about winning the league this season. He’ll gladly use up all his luck to make this moment real.

 

“Really.” Lu Han pinches his left cheek and Minseok winces cutely. Sometimes it’s hard for Lu Han to believe he and Minseok are the same age.  If only he was a year older and got to hear a whiny ‘hyung’ a lot more coming from Minseok’s pouty lips. Or ‘Lu-ge’, as Minseok sometimes jokingly calls him when he wants Lu Han to treat him to coffee. Lu Han’s almost ashamed to know how much it gets to him and how easily just one word manipulates him into getting things for Minseok.

 

Or maybe the reason was always Minseok and not the pet names he calls Lu Han.

 

“I like you.” Lu Han blurts out the words he’s been wanting to say for a while now but has always chickened out of because of the “can’t break the striker partnership” bullshit he’s used as an excuse. Instead of blushing slightly and smiling sweetly like Lu Han expects Minseok to do, his teammate smirks.

 

“Dude, I know.”

 

Right. Lu Han’s probably made it very clear today so it’s no surprise Minseok knows already. Still, he had to say it out loud just to get it out of his system. “Hah, yeah. I guess you do. I mean I did kiss you twice today already…”

 

“Lu… I’ve known for years already.”

 

Okay, wow. What? Seems like Lu Han didn’t get the memo at the same time Minseok did. “B-but I’ve only liked you for, like, two months!”

 

“You sure? Remember how you call me your baby all the time.” Minseok rubs his forehead with his fingers.

 

“Yeah, but…”

 

“You’ve literally fondled my ass at every practice we’ve had for the past four years”, Minseok continues.

 

“True, but…”

 

“You’ve asked me to marry you on more than one occasion.”

 

“That wasn’t…”

 

“Remember that interview we once did where you called me your soulmate?”

 

“Well, you are, but…”

 

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you keep blatantly staring at my face all the time like you want to take a big bite out of it.”

 

“Yeah, but that’s only because you’re so fucking cute all the time. And amazing at football, and I feel so lucky to have you in this team that my heart feels like exploding. I have to keep staring at you just to make sure you’re not my hallucination, because you’re way too perfect”, Lu Han finally manages to argue back with complete sentences. It takes a moment for him to digest everything he just said, and when he finally does, it feels oddly familiar. Like the time Lu Han first realized he was in love with his striker partner. Now he realizes it for the second time. The (only) difference is that Lu Han’s been in love for a lot longer than he originally thought. Now that he thinks about it, is it really platonic to ask your coach to give you and your teammate a hotel room with only one bed in it?

 

Yikes, no wonder Baekhyun has been sending him knowing smirks for years already.

 

“Holy shit… Why didn’t you say anything?!” Lu Han can’t believe Minseok knew his own freaking feelings before he did. It’s probably not just Minseok but the whole team too. Well, minus Yixing, because he’s still hung up on that whole Kyungsoo thing.

 

“Sorry, it was too amusing to watch, and I figured it was better for you to realize things on your own. I did try to give you some hints though, and honestly, sometimes I was so close at just confessing you first, but I still didn’t. I guess I didn’t want to favor Baekhyun’s side of the bet too much. Yixing wouldn’t have liked that.” Minseok smiles apologetically. Lu Han isn’t sure what Baekhyun and Yixing have to do with all this, but he doesn’t want to start questioning that now. No, he’d much rather go back to kissing Minseok before someone comes to the dressing room to check why the lights are still on.

 

“And here I was freaking out over wanting to suddenly kiss you after that one game”, Lu Han groans. Hopefully Minseok has a thing for idiots, because above everything else that’s what Lu Han is. An idiot.

 

“I noticed. I did consider playing with a mask on, just to make you concentrate on things other than my lips”, Minseok laughs, and Lu Han is done hearing about what a transparent fool he’s been. He moves his hand still resting on Minseok’s cheek to the back of his neck and pulls him closer. The laughter dies on Minseok’s lips when Lu Han pushes his lips against the other man’s plump ones. Wanting to kiss his teammate for these past two months has been enough to drive Lu Han to the edge. He doesn’t even want to think about Minseok’s situation — about waiting for years for Lu Han to sort out the stuff in his head. He’s never going to think Yixing’s naïve when it comes to love ever again. Not when he himself is a shining example of dense and stupid mixed together. There’s a lot to do to make it up to Minseok, and Lu Han figures this is a great way to start.

 

Lu Han’s still new to this whole kissing guys business, but to be honest, it’s not _that_ different from kissing girls. Minseok’s lips are soft and full, lacking the roughness Lu Han always associated with guys’ lips. The elder makes a cute muffled noise when Lu Han decides he can at least try to show that he can actually kiss, biting Minseok’s lower lip and dragging it between his teeth. Minseok’s hands clutch at Lu Han’s shirt from the sides, and it keeps Lu Han from jumping at the feel of Minseok’s tongue entering his mouth again. He sneaks his other hand to Minseok’s lower back, moving it over the waistband of his football shorts. Lu Han’s fingers don’t go under it, but he slightly squeezes Minseok’s butt from the outside. This earns him a moan muffled by Lu Han’s neck, where Minseok has switched his attention from the striker’s mouth. Lu Han briefly wonders if he should try to cover the possible hickeys for tomorrow’s light practice, but his thoughts get interrupted when he feels Minseok’s teeth scratch against his pale skin. The sensation makes him buck up from the bench and unintentionally rub his crotch against Minseok’s.

 

Soon enough he finds himself grinding against the elder sitting on top of him again. This time around, Lu Han doesn’t care whether he comes into his pants or not as he hears Minseok’s breathing getting heavier next to his ear. The pink-haired man rolls his hips in a way that makes Lu Han think if Minseok wasn’t a footballer, he could be easily be a dancer in some idol group. He’s glad that isn’t the case, though. If Minseok never played football, Lu Han would probably be with Yixing right now, playing PS3 or working on their essays instead of doing _this._ Gathering enough courage from the elder’s hands roaming all over his body, Lu Han finally slips his own hand under Minseok’s shorts, and the cheeks there are soft as always. The sudden cold hand squeezing his ass makes Minseok jump forward and press his front against Lu Han’s erection just at the right angle. Lu Han hadn’t realized he’d been so close to losing it when he gasps out loud and his vision blurs for a second or two. A moment later, Lu Han breathes in again and blinks his way out of the post-orgasm mist, silently groaning when he feels something sticky spreading in his boxers.

 

“As expected of you, scoring from my assist”, Minseok smirks into his ear and Lu Han groans more loudly. He can sense the influence of their captain and Minseok’s best friend in the elder’s words. Junmyeon’s dad jokes have always been the worst, but Minseok is slowly getting there too. But their captain isn’t someone the striker wants to think about at this moment. To cover up his embarrassment and to make Minseok shut up, Lu Han throws away all his shyness and grabs Minseok’s visibly hard cock through his shorts, squeezing it hard. Not hard enough to hurt his teammate, but strongly enough to wipe the annoying smirk off Minseok’s face and make him sink his teeth into Lu Han’s shoulder in an attempt to muffle his moan. Lu Han hears it anyway, just like he hears the exact moment when Minseok comes with a sharp inhale of air, body stilling, before the moment is over and he slumps against Lu Han.

 

“As expected, my striker partner scores too.” Lu Han pats Minseok’s slightly sweaty pink hair and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. Minseok snorts against his neck, and Lu Han can imagine him rolling his eyes. Lu Han doesn’t care — he’s feeling too blissfully happy to even cringe at his own lame joke.

 

There will be a lot of stuff to write in his ‘diary’ tonight. Probably the kind that will require Lu Han to set up a metal lock for his notebook.

 

_7 days after The Day._

It's been a week and Lu Han still hasn't gotten around getting that lock.

 

“What the… Lu, you keep _a diary_?”

 

“OH MY GOD, PUT THE BOOK DOWN, BAOZI!”


End file.
